OTTO VON BISMARCK once said something to the effect that geography is the only constant factor in international relations . Though he can hardly have foreseen the digital age , his insight holds true when applied to 21st century Marseille . France ’ s second city looks southward towards Africa and eastward to Italy and the Levant . You can still see the remains of the Graeco-Roman port of Massalia , founded around 600 BC and evidence that its natural harbour made it a centre of trade from the earliest times . In fact Marseille is the gateway to France , through which goods and immigrants have poured for many centuries .
What has this got to do with data ?
Well , everything . A look at the network of modern telecommunication cables that converge in Marseille quickly shows why . They largely mimic the old trading routes across the Mediterranean , through the Suez Canal to the Gulf States , across the Indian Ocean to Bombay and Karachi and down the east coast of Africa to Mombasa , Dar es Salaam , Maputo and then Durban and Cape Town .
Marseille is a natural point of convergence for these data pipelines . Europe ’ s great business centres all lie to the north , and to reach them the fibre optic has a lot of land to cross . The Eastern Mediterranean presents the continuing political risk of transit across
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