The Cloud Castle
From convenience to control: The story of how cloud computing went from nerd dream to techno-feudalist stronghold.
Once upon a time, we owned things. We had floppy disks, USB sticks, server rooms that smelled like stale coffee and desperation. We ran websites off dusty towers under our desks. And when we didn’t want someone to read our files, we just unplugged the damn thing.
Then the cloud arrived. And everything changed.
Act I: The Dream
The pitch was irresistible. Imagine never having to worry about uptime. No hardware failures. No fire suppression systems. Just code, pushed to a magical datacenter in the sky, where someone else takes care of it all. Infinite scale. Pay only for what you use. Deploy in seconds. It was called AWS, and it started with bookstores.
In 2006, Amazon quietly launched Amazon Web Services. At first, it was S3 for storage and EC2 for compute. Developers, startups, even enterprise CTOs bit immediately. Why spend $50,000 on servers when you could rent the same power from Amazon by the hour?
So we climbed aboard. We migrated. We dockerized. We serverless-ed. We became dependent.
Act II: The Lords of the Cloud
Fast forward. Today, AWS powers not just your side project, but the global internet. Netflix, NASA, Pfizer, the CIA. Over 30% of the public cloud market is Amazon's. Microsoft and Google trail behind.
But here's the kicker: Netflix, Amazon’s direct competitor in streaming, runs on AWS. That means when you watch "The Crown," it’s streaming from a server rack that belongs to Bezos.
So when people started whispering about a documentary that allegedly criticized Amazon being pulled from Netflix’s platform—with no clear explanation—theories started flying. Was it internal pressure? Pure coincidence? Was AWS involved?
There’s no confirmation, of course. But in the age of opaque moderation, platform entanglement, and subtle corporate pressure, the line between conspiracy and caution blurs.
And here's the uncomfortable truth: if you own the infrastructure and the platforms, you eventually own the distribution. Why wouldn’t you influence what runs on your wires and racks, especially if it threatens your brand or business?
Amazon has its own video streaming service — Amazon Prime Video. Why would they continue offering premium bandwidth, hosting, and resources to a direct competitor like Netflix without some degree of leverage? In a world of tight margins you don’t just rent to your rival. You hold the leash.
Act III: The Feudal Arrangement
This is where techno-feudalism enters the stage.
Economist Yanis Varoufakis describes it as a new world order: we don’t sell goods anymore, we rent platforms. We don’t compete in markets, we operate inside digital fiefdoms. And the lords? Big Tech. Especially those who own the infrastructure.
AWS isn’t just a tool. It’s a terrain. If you’re building on it, you’re building on someone else’s land. Your application might look like yours, but the roads, the plumbing, the water — all rented.
If the lord wants you gone, you're gone.
Act IV: Privacy, Control, and the Illusion of Safety
Let’s talk about data. Encryption helps, sure. But AWS has access to the metadata. They know when you connect, what resources spike, what patterns emerge. And if a government subpoena lands? You're not even notified in some jurisdictions. AWS complies. You don’t even get a knock.
There’s also the Patriot Act. And FISA. And executive orders. If you’re hosting sensitive or activist material in a U.S.-based cloud, you're always a whisper away from exposure.
Control isn't just about content takedowns. It's about invisible influence. Terms of service can change. APIs can become paid. Services can degrade. And migration? Good luck escaping vendor lock-in when your entire pipeline is tailored to their black-box tools.
Act V: Is There a Way Out?
Yes, but it's not easy.
Self-hosting: Run your own stack on bare metal or VPS providers in privacy-friendly jurisdictions. Harder, but doable.
Federated platforms: Mastodon, Matrix, PeerTube. Decentralized, but fragmented.
Multi-cloud or hybrid infrastructure: Diversify to avoid putting all your bits in one basket.
Data sovereignty laws: Support regulation that gives users more transparency and export rights.
But most importantly? Think about your dependencies. Convenience isn't free. It has a cost, and increasingly, that cost is control.
We left the server room for the cloud, and now we float in someone else’s sky. It’s fast, it’s scalable, and it’s fragile.
Welcome to the Cloud Castle. Just don’t forget who owns the keys.