The Great Planting of these server farms has only begun, thanks to a revolution currently taking place in the $120 billion software industry. Software is becoming webified: Computer programs that traditionally have been installed on personal computers – from simple word processing and e-mail to heavy-duty applications that help companies manage payroll – are going online. (Bye-bye to CD-ROMs and 300-page installation manuals.)

Google in June released an online spreadsheet and earlier this year acquired the maker of a web-based word-processing program called Writely. The true sign of the times: Microsoft, a company that has become synonymous with desktop software, has pledged to move a big swath of its applications to the online world.

To handle this change, Internet companies are building their own centers, though none of them is all that eager to talk about it.