Computing has evolved from large mainframe computers that were expensive and centralized, to more distributed personal computers and networks. This evolution has been driven by decreasing costs from innovations like microprocessors, Ethernet networking, and cloud/utility computing. Software has also grown more complex, moving from simple programs to interconnected applications and services.

1. Evolution of Computing
From mainframes to SaaS and the impact on computing.
CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY TO REARDEN COMMERCE

2. IN THE
BEGINNING…
• Computers were big,
expensive and had to be
shared by entire companies.
• These systems were run by
centralized organizations that
managed the resource for the
company.
• This had the advantage of
concentrating the necessary
skills.
• But, early computers were
primarily used by the
operators, not the broader
organization.

3. AND
THEN…
• Early mainframes were so
expensive that only the largest
institutions could afford them.
• Digital Equipment Corporation
introduced the concept of a
mini-computer in the 1970 s
that brought the cost down
making computers more
accessible.
• DEC also made terminals
inexpensive so now more
people in an organization
could use the computer.
• Broader access gave way to
more demand and more
software being produced.
• Terminals had opened the
world to the idea of democratic
computing.

4. THE MICROPROCESSOR
REVOLUTION
With the introduction of the 8086/8088, personal
computers became powerful enough for business
use and gave knowledge workers more freedom
than they had ever experienced.

5. WITH NEW TECHNOLOGY
COMES NEW CHALLENGES
PCs weren’t connected so the only way to move data around was on floppy
disks and with computers distributed all over the organization, administration
(upgrades, repairs, eventually viruses) was a challenge.

6. ENTER THE
NETWORK
In the 1980 s, Ethernet emerged as a low cost,
high performance networking standard for
organizations of all sizes.

7. INCREASING DEMAND
LOWERED COST
Multiple cores and the movement towards web
solutions which scale horizontally along with
dropping storage costs allowed hardware prices
to steadily fall.

8. ENTER
UTILITY COMPUTING
Utility computing allows organizations to buy capacity
on demand and manage the amount of capacity they
need which provides businesses with a better ROI on
their investment.

9. SIX DEGREES OF
SEPERATION

10. THE EVOLUTION OF
PROGRAMMING LAUNGUAGES
Programming computers began as a series of binary instructions
entered using switches and has evolved at an unprecedented pace
ever since.

11. APPLICATION COMPLEXITY
KEEPS GROWING
The first applications were nothing more than a few
instructions that performed some simple math and logic
while modern applications are really tens or even hundreds
of applications connected via a complex network.

12. SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE
EMERGES
Organizations began to realize that they needed many
systems to run their business that were not core to their
business and the cost of maintaining the staff and
equipment to run these services was significant.

14. TO PUT IT IN
PERSPECTIVE
In 2007, Jim Gray of Microsoft devised a benchmark.
Sort 10 billion rows, 100 bytes each, with a 10 byte
randomly generated key…

15. FUTURE USES OF
COMPUTATIONAL POWER