The Evolution of Computing: The Internet Datacenter

The boom of datacenters and datacenter hosting came during the dot-com era. Countless businesses needed nonstop operation and fast Internet connectivity to deploy systems and establish a presence on the Web. Installing data center hosting equipment was not a viable option for smaller companies. As the dot com bubble grew, companies began to understand the importance of having an Internet presence. Establishing this presence required that companies have fast and reliable Internet connectivity. They also had to have the capability to operate 24 hours a day in order to deploy new systems.

    

Soon, these new requirements resulted in the construction of extremely large data facilities, responsible for the operation of computer systems within a company and the deployment of new systems. However, not all companies could afford to operate a huge datacenter. The physical space, equipment requirements, and highly-trained staff made these large datacenters extremely expensive and sometimes impractical. In order to respond to this demand, many companies began building large facilities, called Internet Datacenters, which provided businesses of all sizes with a wide range of solutions for operations and system deployment.

    

 

New technologies and practices were designed and implemented to handle the operation requirements and scale of such large-scale operations. These large datacenters revolutionized technologies and operating practices within the industry. Private datacenters were born out of this need for an affordable Internet datacenter solution. Today's private datacenters allow small businesses to have access to the benefits of the large Internet data centers without the expense of upkeep and the sacrifice of valuable physical space.

 

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The Evolution of Computing: Distributed Computing

After the microcomputers, came the world of distributed systems. One important characteristic of the distributed computing environment was that all of the major OSs were available on small, low-cost servers. This feature meant that it was easy for various departments or any other corporate group to purchase servers outside the control of the traditional, centralized IT environment. As a result, applications often just appeared without following any of the standard development processes. Engineers programmed applications on their desktop workstations and used them for what later proved to be mission-critical or revenue-sensitive purposes. As they shared applications with others in their departments, their workstations became servers that served many people within the organization.

  

 

In the distributed computing environment, it was common for applications to be developed following a one-application-to-one-server model. Because funding for application development comes from vertical business units, and they insist on having their applications on their own servers, each time an application is put into production, another server is added. The problem created by this approach is significant because the one-application-to-one-server model is really a misnomer. In reality, each new application generally requires the addition of at least three new servers, and often requires more as follows: development servers, test servers, training servers and cluster and disaster recovery servers.

 

  

 

Therefore, it became standard procedure in big corporations to purchase 8 or 10 servers for every new application being deployed. It was the prelude for the enormous bubble that ultimately would cause the collapse of many organization who thought cyberspace was an easy and limitless way to make money.

 

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The Evolution of Computing: Personal Computing

Initially, companies developed applications on minicomputers because it gave them more freedom than they had in the mainframe environment. The rules and processes used in this environment were typically more flexible than those in the mainframe environment, giving developers freedom to be more creative when writing applications. In many ways, minis were the first step towards freedom from mainframe computing. However, with each computer being managed the way its owner chose to manage it, a lack of accepted policies and procedures often led to a somewhat chaotic environment. Further, because each mini vendor had its own proprietary OS, programs written for one vendor's mini were difficult to port to another mini. In most cases, changing vendors meant rewriting applications for the new OS. This lack of application portability was a major factor in the demise of the mini.

During the 1980s, the computer industry experienced the boom of the microcomputer era. In the excitement accompanying this boom, computers were installed everywhere, and little thought was given to the specific environmental and operating requirements of the machines. From this point on, computing that was previously done in terminals that served only to interact with the mainframe — the so called “stupid terminals”— shall be made on personal computers, or machines that have their own resources. This new computing model was the embryo of modern cyberspace with all the services that we know today.
 

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