4 ms·

Computation done on behalf of one client by another (more powerful) remote client, with a timesharing model, is kind of the defining characteristic of both, tho

• jdminhbg 10y ago
  That's not at all the defining characteristic of modern cloud computing; if it were, you would call VR systems (laptop or phone does computation on behalf of video system on your face) "cloud computing." What's different about cloud computing is the persistent connection and availability, combined with the ownership model and the resulting implied scalability.
  • acoard 10y ago
    >persistent connection and availability I can't really comment on the ownership model, but surely a persistent connection and availability is an incremental change.
    • jdminhbg 10y ago
      If always-on-from-everywhere is incremental, then what isn't incremental? Are smart phones an incremental change from desktops?
      • nickpsecurity 10y ago
        If we give you that, they have one breakthrough over mainframes. That makes them "mainframes that are always on from everywhere." Mainframe apps were already doing that with terminal, thin clients, web apps, and so on. It was part of modernization efforts to give workers or customers better access to data or business logic on mainframes by putting better interfaces in front of them. Situation is improved today with cloud stuff but core capability was there.