It is worth pointing that our base database infrastracture is 35 times larger. Our (non duplicate) base data set is 10-15 times larger, compressed. And that we serve 30 times the number of database queries than they do; with peaks at 10-20x the number of queries per second, per server, despite his hardware being twice as powerful than our newest hardware.
All that with around 6-7 people working in infrastructure (vs 11 of us).
This doesn't have anything to do with the original post. I just wanted to a) agree with Dan that we need better analytics infrastructure (Re: Something to aspire to, perhaps collaborate with them on.) and b) explain why this hasn't been done already and why it is complex. But it is a known request both from analytics, research and other labs users.