Author Description

This paper offers a brief primer on the concepts underneath cloud computing and then introduces four myths about the interaction of cloud and geopolitics. First, that all data is created equal - a discussion of how cloud providers build and operate these data intensive services and the impact of debates about how and where to localize these systems and their contents. Second, that cloud computing is not a supply chain risk - cloud providers play host to some of the most remarkable security challenges and widely used technical infrastructure in the world, their decisions impact the supply chains of millions of users and entail management of risk at sometimes novel scale. Third, only authoritarian states distort the cloud - a pernicious myth and one that continues to hold back a cogent Western strategy to defend the open internet and threatens to upend the economics supporting the public cloud. Fourth, that cloud providers do not influence the shape of the internet - this final section highlights both risk and opportunity for the internet which runs much deeper than speech controls and content takedowns.