Episode Details

Ever notice how cloud providers always list the same cities — Frankfurt, Tel Aviv, Northern Virginia — and never a place like Magdeburg? This episode unpacks "data center gravity": the self-reinforcing loop of submarine cable landings, internet exchanges like DE-CIX handling 12 Tbps, carrier hotels like 60 Hudson Street, and workforce clusters that keep cloud hardware concentrated in maybe a dozen metro areas. We trace the Marea cable from Bilbao to Frankfurt, examine Israel's centralized IIX in Tel Aviv, and explore why Loudoun County, Virginia hosts 70% of global internet traffic. It's not a conspiracy — it's physics, economics, and legacy infrastructure ossifying into a permanent map.