Data as a Commodity: The New Geography of the Cloud Economy Luciano Charlita De FreitasMichel KerfJulian NajlesLuis Andres July 08, 2026 This page in: English Portuguese

https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/latinamerica/data-as-a-commodity--the-new-geography-of-the-cloud-economy Every time we process a payment, save vacation photos, or use an AI tool, data is stored and processed somewhere called the cloud. That “somewhere” may be a nearby data center or one located thousands of kilometers away, delivering computing power at scale. As cloud technologies mature, they are becoming increasingly standardized and interchangeable, shifting competition away from customized solutions toward simpler offerings, where differentiation is primarily driven by cost.