Do you remember Tymnet?

A worldwide network of online services existed long before the Internet. Before the modern “Cloud” there was time-sharing. The earliest computers were very expensive, single-task machines devoted to running a single program at a time. Each program loaded from a stack of punch cards, and ran its course without interacting with the outside world.

Running payroll, for example, meant that the system was unavailable for any other function until the payroll was complete, the checks printed, the books balanced, and updates written to new punch cards and stored for the next run. This very expensive machine spent most of the time waiting on the peripherals, the printer, the card reader, and the card punch. This was “Batch Processing.”

Multitasking was a brilliant innovation, allowing multiple programs to run simultaneously, sharing the expensive computer across multiple simultaneous batch jobs.

Time-sharing soon followed, allowing multiple users to interact with the computer in real time.

Several companies arose to offer “cloud-based” applications available remotely using mechanical terminals, a time-shared computer, and a network. One such company was Tymshare, and the network Tymshare created to deliver remote computer services was Tymnet.

Tymnet began operations in late 1968 using a stylized cloud logo that claimed the first “Cloud” services—precursors to today’s pervasive cloud infrastructure.

Read about the earliest computers. Explore the cold-war origins of time-sharing and networking. Study the development of commercial, cloud-based network services of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Read how these services combined with the successors to ARPANET and created the Commercial Internet we use today.
Educate yourself on the true history of networking:

Buy The Tym Before … The Untold Origins of Cloud Computingl