- Understanding a little history can help
put the emergence in today's value
of X as a service into context.
Back in the 1970s, the business use of computers
were almost exclusively used by large corporations.
Computers were expensive then, and had a relatively
narrow number of uses in manufacturing,
engineering, and for processing business transactions.
The computing power was usually centralized
on large processing units called mainframes.
And later, on mini computers that were
smaller than mainframes, but bigger than
the personal computers we use today.
As more users were added to these systems,
many used what were called dumb terminals.
These devices were mainly a screen and a keyboard
with limited processing capability.
All instructions were sent by the user
to the mainframe or mini computer
and the results were then returned to the terminal.
Later on, more capability was added to these terminals
and they became known a smart terminals.
They were the forerunner to personal computers.
With rapid advances in integrated circuit technology,
what we commonly refer to as microchips,
storage and software, information processing,
moved to the personal computer or PC.
Declining costs and increasing utility
resulted in an explosion of PC adoption in business.
Soon, PCs were connecting together
into central systems called servers.
Local networks flourished and soon after
satellite offices were connected over wide area networks.
Later in the 1990s, the internet arrived
and it changed everything.
In a surprising twist, however,
with the introduction of the World Wide Web,
some functions of business computing
began to regress and behave like the old days
of dumb terminals, again.
That is, instructions, say adding an order to a cart
would be sent to a users' browser to a central system
and then the response would be returned
over the internet to the users' browser.
The benefits and subsequent demand for internet services
and the Web meant that innovation moved quickly.
Through the early 2000s, new languages
for Web development emerged,
internet browsers matured and upgrades
to local and public networks enabled the delivery
of faster access and more capability.
By the late 2000s into the 2010s,
full-feature rich business applications
were being delivered over the internet.
For these applications, organizations no longer needed
to acquire infrastructure; they weren't required
to take care of sulfur maintenance.
Gradually, more computing capabilities were being delivered
over the internet such as data storage and security.
Abstracting the computing complexity
from the customer's organization meant that they
no longer had to be too consumed with the technology
and could focus on their core competencies.
As a result, various aspects of computing
were now simply on-demand subscription-based services.
These as-a-service solutions now roll up
to an encompassing category of computing
called everything as a service or X as a service.
The advantages of X as a service now extend
beyond the original benefits and are powering
the digital transformation of business
and the future of work.