One of the best lies that Silicon Valley ever sold us – and there’s a long list to choose from – is “the cloud”. Much of our compute happens up in “the cloud”. It sounds somewhere ephemeral. Not even part of the land. It’s a marvellous, magical and mendacious trick.For we are now discovering that there is a very real cost to the cloud. Between now and 2030, companies worldwide are expected to invest nearly $7 trillion in building and upgrading data centres. Your compute happens in anonymous industrial buildings on the edge of town that house vast data centres.Subscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Fetching latest articles