Over the past two years, Google has spent a whopping $5 billion to construct a network of state-of-the-art data centers. The company's goal is to meet not only its own insatiable need for computing power, but yours as well.
Google's investment is part of a broad movement toward "cloud computing," a literally hazy term for a concept that takes outsourcing, software as a service, and similar rent-don't-own trends to their logical conclusion. Think of it as a ubiquitous Wi-Fi hotspot that can satisfy all of a company's computing needs, from software applications to data to communications and collaboration. No more data centers; everything you need is "out there" in the cloud, accessible for a fee. Or fees.
Source: CFO, http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/11954936/c_11991481?f=magazine_alsoinside