Article ID: CBB369914463

At the Electronic Crossroads Once Again: The Myth of the Modern Computer Utility in the United States (2017)

unapi

The term "computer utility" has been perennially present in the history of computing, though a precise definition of the term has been fleeting, even when it first appeared in the Mid-1960s. The recent resurgence of interest in the remote provision of computing power has brought with it the historical jumble of definitions that make up that term, and "computer utility" is once again being applied to computer architectures though with little justification or exposition given regarding this use. This article attempts to determine whether past and present applications of the term share any commonalities and in doing so questions whether there has ever existed a true "computer utility." To do so, incarnations of the "computer utility" are examined in two time periods--the 1960s and the 1970s--during which time computer time-sharing enjoyed significant prosperity and now as cloud computing has become increasingly popular and prolific.

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Authors & Contributors
Con Diaz, Gerardo
Yost, Jeffrey R.
Dasgupta, Simanti
Brian Hochman
Tom Kane
Elzway, Salem
Concepts
Software
History of Computing
Technology and government
Computer industry
Technology and law
Technology and society
Time Periods
21st century
20th century
20th century, late
19th century
Modern
18th century
Places
United States
India
Bangalore, India
Americas
Europe
Great Britain
Institutions
Control Data Corporation
Peter Norton Computing Corporation
Symantec Corporation
National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works
United States. Securities and Exchange Commission
Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory
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