040 - Big Tech Owns Your Compute... Should you be Worried?

After a brief hiatus, the crew is back! Andy is joined by both Paul Schnackenburg and Eric Siron to tackle a big question: what happens when access to compute becomes a subscription privilege instead of an owned capability?This week's topic goes deep! Big tech bankrolling elections, Bezos pushing rented cloud PCs over owned hardware, a global RAM shortage driven by AI demand. All the ingredients for a dangerous consolidation of compute seem to be in place. The crew explores the erosion of trust in cloud providers, geopolitical implications for non-US businesses, how consolidated AI models could subtly shape reality, the environmental cost of AI data centers, and the growing movement toward cloud repatriation and on-prem infrastructure. There's no silver bullet, but awareness and intentional choices about where we place our trust and spend our money are the first steps.## Episode Resources ##SysAdmin Weekly Website - https://www.sysadminweekly.comSysAdmin Weekly Companion Newsletter - https://newsletter.sysadminweekly.comSysAdmin Weekly GitHub Community Discussions - ⁠https://github.com/ProjectRunspace/sysadmin-weekly⁠VoidLink AI-Generated Malware Framework (The Hacker News) - https://thehackernews.com/2026/01/voidlink-linux-malware-framework-built.htmlGoogle Quietly Removes Net-Zero Carbon Goal Amid AI Data Center Buildout (Tom's Hardware) -https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/google-quietly-removes-net-zero-carbon-goal-from-website-amid-rapid-power-hungry-ai-data-center-buildout-industry-first-sustainability-pledge-moved-to-background-amidst-ai-energy-crisisGoogle Plans to Power Data Center with Fossil Fuels and Carbon Capture - https://theconversation.com/google-plans-to-power-a-new-data-center-with-fossil-fuels-yet-release-almost-no-emissions-heres-how-its-carbon-capture-tech-works-270425Why a Carbon Capture Breakthrough Will/Won't Save Us (PBS Reactions) - https://www.pbs.org/video/why-a-carbon-capture-breakthrough-willwont-save-us-9cmmk0/