> It could take up to four days to load just 5 MB of data, an operation that would now be completed in milliseconds using modern storage devices like flash driv

> It could take up to four days to load just 5 MB of data, an operation that would now be completed in milliseconds using modern storage devices like flash drives or cloud computing. I don't think that's really an apples to apples comparison. I'd bet the "business value" represented by that pile of punch cards was probably much higher than a typical 5 MB chunk of data today. There was undoubtedly a lot of thought put into packing as much meaning onto a card as possible and only collecting what was needed. Even accounting for that, things are much faster today, but it's worth considering.