step 0 is having the data. how much you want to optimize on top of that is open ended. these m2 ssds are insanity
Discussion
Well you know, compute needs lots of small iops. Not much space required.
You can have fast, large, cheap, pick two.
M.2 is fast. But it doesn't scale nicely, cannot be hot swapped, and isn't bootable for gear older than 8 years or so. Not a huge big deal if your machine redundant, but that's also hard.