Cache Me If You Can

In this episode of Cache Me if You Can, we go beneath the cloud to examine the physical infrastructure powering today’s digital economy: data centers. As demand for cloud services, AI workloads, and high-performance computing accelerates, data centers have become critical national assets—while also emerging as flashpoints for debates over energy use, land, labor, and local governance.

Our guest, Chris Kimm, former Senior Vice President at Equinix, brings decades of experience operating and scaling global data center infrastructure at the intersection of technology, customers, and public policy. Drawing on his leadership across data center operations in the Americas and global customer service teams, as well as his time chairing the Data Center Coalition’s Board of Directors, Chris helps unpack how modern data centers work, how they’ve evolved, and why misconceptions about their impact persist.

We discuss what actually happens inside a data center, how facilities differ from hyperscale to edge deployments, where innovation is happening most rapidly, and how the industry is responding to mounting energy and sustainability challenges. The conversation also explores why regions like Northern Virginia became data center hubs, what economic benefits these facilities bring to local communities, and how policymakers can better balance growth with public concerns as digital infrastructure continues to expand.

In this special Cache Me If You Can episode, we bring you a CSIS event featuring Matt Pearl, Director of the Strategic Technologies Program, in conversation with Bill Whyman, Senior Advisor with CSIS Strategic Technologies and author of the new CSIS paper Sovereign Cloud–Sovereign AI Conundrum: Policy Actions to Achieve Prosperity and Security.

The discussion explores the global push for sovereign cloud and sovereign AI, as well as the difficult tradeoffs governments face as they seek greater control over data, compute, and cloud infrastructure. Matt and Bill break down what cloud computing is, why digital sovereignty has surged to the top of the policy agenda, and where sovereign approaches risk undermining innovation, competitiveness, and economic growth through higher costs, scalability limits, and fragmentation.

Read Bill’s paper: https://www.csis.org/analysis/sovereign-cloud-sovereign-ai-conundrum-policy-actions-achieve-prosperity-and-security

In this episode of Cache Me if You Can, we dive into quantum technology and why it’s quickly becoming one of the most consequential frontiers in U.S.-China strategic competition. Once confined to research labs and academic theory, quantum is now moving toward real-world applications that could reshape cybersecurity, intelligence collection, advanced sensing, and the global balance of power.

Our guest, Dr. James (Jim) Lewis, former director of the Strategic Technologies Program at CSIS, draws on decades of experience spanning cyber policy, export controls, and high-tech competition with China to unpack what’s real, what’s hype, and what’s at stake. We discuss how quantum computing could threaten today’s encryption, why quantum sensing may arrive sooner than people think, how Beijing is investing to gain an edge, and what U.S. policymakers must do to sustain leadership, from funding and commercialization to workforce development and quantum-safe security standards.

In this episode of Cache Me if You Can, we explore how space has become a central arena for geopolitical competition, economic activity, and national security in the digital age. Once dominated by government-led exploration, space, particularly low Earth orbit, is now crowded with commercial actors, new technologies, and emerging security risks that challenge existing rules and norms.

Our guest, Audrey M. Schaffer, senior vice president of global policy and government strategy at Slingshot Aerospace and former director for space policy at the National Security Council, draws on her experience across the White House, Department of Defense, State Department, and NASA to unpack today’s evolving space threat environment. We discuss China’s growing space ambitions, the role of commercial satellites in modern conflict, the intersection of AI and space security, and how the United States can lead on governance, sustainability, and norm-setting to protect its competitive edge beyond Earth.

In this episode of Cache Me if You Can, we examine how governments around the world are shaping the rules of the digital age. From the United States’ market-driven approach to the European Union’s rights-based frameworks, competing models of tech governance are redefining innovation, privacy, and security.

Our guest, Shane Tews, nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and president of Logan Circle Strategies, draws on her experience across government, industry, and global internet governance to unpack debates over encryption, lawful access, and emerging technologies like AI and 5G. Together, we explore whether a shared global rulebook is still possible—or if the future of tech governance will be increasingly fragmented.