What is the Cloud Doing to the Internet? | WZB

The future of the Internet is (in) the cloud. Companies like Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (AWS), rather than platforms like X or Meta, will become the tech industry’s most powerful players. To the extent this is not already the case, the choices of these cloud companies will influence what our wired world looks like, including our much-beloved (and much-reviled) Internet.  In other words, the growing importance of cloud computing for networking and connectivity will impact the future of the public Internet. In this talk, I will present some preliminary findings from my ongoing ethnographic research on the impact of the cloud industry on the Internet at the University of Delft and pair that with insights from my Ph.D. research on Internet governance. I will draw out how critical Internet governance services are increasingly moving onto the cloud and turning towards the delivery of industry, rather than consumer, services. I will use these various insights and build on existing literature in the field (Volker 2021, Todd 2020, etc) to speculate on the future of the Internet as we know it. I will also open up the discussion on how key Internet regulations might need to be updated in light of these developments.