ASHBURN, Virginia. — At a glance, the suburbs to the west of the nation’s capital look like other American burbs undergoing development booms.

Construction crews and cranes are a common presence in Northern Virginia communities in the flight path of Dulles International Airport, filling in virtually every undeveloped gap. But the people who live here don’t have to wonder what’s being built — it’s almost always the same thing.

“If you see a crane, it can only be another data center,” said Northern Virginia resident Elena Schlossberg.

She lives in the orbit of Data Center Alley, the world’s largest collection of computer storage facilities. The area’s affluent suburbs and rolling farmland historically served as bedroom communities for federal workers in nearby Washington, D.C., but the

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