On 11/20/2016 12:02 PM, Mark Linimon wrote: > On Sun, Nov 20, 2016 at 07:52:20AM -0500, william degnan wrote: >> Old Computerworlds from the time had a lot of ads for timesharing >> services. > > That was before everyone decided it was far cheaper and saner to own > and administer their own systems. > > (ahem.)
Ahems, aside. There was a definite market for outfits like SBC, Tymshare and EDS back in the day. They afforded three things that "owning your own" couldn't quite achieve for most commercial users. The first was networking (such as it was back then) and remote access by various branch offices to the same data. ISTR that SBC was the basis for Ticketron, for example. Networking (over common carrier lines) was hugely expensive back then. The second was expertise--the service bureau had experts in DP and could guide an unsuspecting user through the maze of DP machinations. No need to write your own applications; the SB probably had something to fit the bill. The third was availability of maintained hardware. Sure, you might have a service contract with IBM or CDC, but when your system went down, all you could do was stand around fidgeting while your machine was helped back to its feet. SBs always had spare capacity for your job--and could expedite (for a fee). Recall also, that back in the day, much of BDP was batch-oriented, not interactive. Interestingly, after a decline, service bureaus are coming back in the role of 3D printing providers. --Chuck
