Ptsf

Tailscale, headscale, or something along those lines may help optimize the route but as others have said to resolve this is an actual fashion you'd need a cdn which requires significant geo-redundant hardware which comes at a pretty significant cost. That being said I think your friend has a good shot if you implement the former.

Depends on the drive too, I have some insanely loud Ironwolf drives and you would never guess they're from the same manufacturer as my practically silent Exos X18s.