Vittorio Hernandez

More Internet companies are building their do-it-yourself servers instead of ordering them from computer makers because they can't find the specs they need from major manufacturers.

Facebook and Google are among the tech firms using DIY data servers, which now make up 20 percent of the American market for servers and generated $31.9 billion across the world in 2010.

Digital data traffic doubles every 18 months, according to website In-Stat, but still lags behind demand by 26 percent each year.

Demand is also up because of the discovery of different capabilities of Data Infrastructure Servers such as Web caches, game servers and streaming media sources.

The growing preference for DIY servers has caused lost revenue for hardware manufacturers Dell and Hewlett-Packard. However, sales data showed that HP revenue from servers increased 22.5 percent in the third quarter of 2010, while that of Dell rose by 25.6 percent. IBM registered a 9.9 percent hike for the same period and Fujitsu 5.2 percent.

A technology strategist explained that the rise of DIY servers is a customer solution for what the IT industry could not provide,

The decline in sales of personal computers and consumer shifts to tablets make computer makers more dependent on server manufacturing for their revenue stream. DIY servers meet the demand and cost less because they have fewer components, upgrades and backup services that companies such as Dell and HP usually offer to large companies.

Another rising industry is the construction of data center buildings in places that used to be rural areas such as Loudoun County, Virginia, which is experiencing an economic boost. Data centers are set up in such areas because they require a substantial size of real estate.

Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon have data centers in Loudoun County. Sabey Data Center Properties plans to build a 490,000-square-foot campus and RagingWire a 140,000-square foot facility in the same area.

There are about 40 data centers spread throughout the county with a total space of 4 million square feet. Another 800,000 square feet are in the planning or construction stages.

Loudoun officials estimate that by 2021 6.5 million square feet of data centers would be up in the county.

AOL discovered the county, where it built its Dulles campus in the 1990s. It is now the nerve center for all East Coast Internet communications, in effect a doorway to the Internet for millions of American cyber surfers.