UC San Diego

Through a multi-site ethnography of a Chinese cloud computing company known as Frontier, I aim to address the following empirical puzzle: Why did the flagship digital transformation project in the United States fail, despite the company possessing significant technological capabilities and encountering minimal political pressure during implementation? Beyond this singular case, my broader objective is to extract insights pertaining to cloud computing and its relationship with informational capitalism, both within a general context and, more specifically, within the dynamic landscape of China.

My argument contends that the failure of this project cannot be solely attributed to political and cultural factors, nor can it be explained solely by the materiality thesis. Instead, it is the outcome of distinct material ecosystems, unique production regimes that underpin cloud computing, and labor resistance within the industry. At the crux, I have termed this production regime "dual agile development," and it operates as the point of convergence between political and cultural factors and the technological system and materiality present on the shop floor. Extending beyond the Frontier case, I also examine the broader development of China's cloud computing industry with reference to other places. Within this industry, the infrastructural sector exhibits considerably greater strength in comparison to the application sector. The division of labor of the government has played a pivotal role in shaping it.