‘The Cloud’ Is a Terrible Metaphor
The internet has always been more physical—and fragile—than it seems.
A freight train derailment in Baltimore’s Howard Street Tunnel sparked an intense fire in July 2001, with flames reaching between 1,000 to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Over 100 firefighters responded, but the cause of the fire remained unknown. The incident disrupted not only train services but also the internet, as several service providers and telecommunications companies had cables running through the tunnel, causing widespread slowdowns.
The failure of the tunnel, which served as a critical chokepoint for internet traffic, underscored the fragility of the internet infrastructure.
The article highlights that while the internet is often perceived as a cloud of infinite connectivity, it is, in fact, a physical network of cables, data centers, and transmission towers. Companies like WorldCom played a significant role in the fragility of the system, spreading internet traffic across networks but ultimately concentrating them in a single tunnel. This concentration of resources made the internet vulnerable to outages, as seen during WorldCom's failure.
Despite investments in technology, the lack of diversity in physical infrastructure led to significant outages. An example cited is Fastly, a cloud-utility provider, which experienced a one-hour outage in 2021, affecting major news websites like CNN, The New York Times, and The Guardian. Investors saw this as a profit opportunity rather than a fragility issue.
The article emphasizes that the cloud economy thrives on corporate redundancy, which often leads to inefficiencies due to the limited number of companies controlling key internet infrastructure.
Furthermore, the cloud itself obscures the actual network of companies, people, and processes that maintain the internet. Most companies do not have long lifespans, and the concentration of data centers and transmission towers into a few hands raises concerns about the system's resilience. The rise of AI has shed light on the physical and software-based vulnerabilities of the internet, revealing a reliance on a few companies and the critical software that supports it.
This includes PHP, a coding language used in 70 percent of websites, whose maintenance is largely reliant on volunteers. The fragility of the internet is thus not just a metaphor but a reality, with significant implications for its future.
Written by urgent.news from The Atlantic's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
