4 ms·
Cloud computing and time sharing are not the same thing, though. Time sharing was just a way for multiple people to access the same computer at the same time. I
by danellis 13y ago
Cloud computing and time sharing are not the same thing, though. Time sharing was just a way for multiple people to access the same computer at the same time. In cloud computing, people aren't accessing a particular computer as far as they're concerned; they're accessing a service that's out there somewhere, and they might even have two consecutive requests handled by computers in different data centers.
- kawera 13y ago...they're accessing a service that's out there somewhere... Exactly what IBM offered in the late 70's.
- ninkendo 13y agoIf you want to distill all of what "the cloud" means into just "accessing a service", then sure. Nothing's changed in 40 years because it's all still just "clients" accessing "services". Also, transportation hasn't changed in millenia because we're still just humans moving places, and information retrieval hasn't changed since the invention of the written word, because we're still just absorbing information from glyphs on something that has distinct colors.
- mikeash 13y agoHe's not saying "hasn't changed". He's just saying that he was using something that could easily be described as "cloud computing" four decades ago.
- ninkendo 13y agoWell, he said that "accessing a service that's out there somewhere" is "exactly" what IBM was offering in the 70's. I interpret that to mean that it hasn't changed.
- kawera 13y agoYou are right. The technology has evolved but the concept is the same; we had terminal servers connected to the nearest point of their private network over a dedicated line and they run our software in one or more of their servers.