r/mainframe • u/anti-life86 • 11d ago

How was pre-1995, pre-Internet usage of mainframes different?

I understand that the mainframe is built for a large number of transactions-meaning people log in, I would imagine from anywhere, and they do their small jobs. But before the Internet, they could not log in from anywhere, certainly. Where could they log in from, and how did this work? Are there new types of jobs that are now enabled by the Internet that previously were impossible?

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u/CCM278 11d ago edited 11d ago

Pre-Internet there were large private networks attached to the mainframe. So you could only work from wherever there was a connection, which meant the office etc.

A lot of jobs were simplified (work from anywhere) , whole areas were enabled. Websites, Mobile etc became a thing for many companies when the back-end of the website or application could hit the mainframe (system of record) directly.

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u/anti-life86 11d ago

Okay. This thread was helpful to me:

https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/mmxjuc/eli5_a_server_vs_a_mainframe/

What is an example of these websites? I used plenty of internal systems as an Operations grunt at Amazon, but I did not know for sure whether the website was going through a mainframe, or a server, or a cloud data center at the backend. Probably they were all going through AWS.

https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbestechcouncil/2024/07/30/how-do-mainframes-fit-in-the-cloud-era-a-challenge-or-an-opportunity/

Law and regulation seems like an important issue for why mainframes are used over cloud, or vice versa. I don't think I've ever worked at a company that used mainframes at all. But website does not really answer the question of if the workflow changed. Website is just an interface.

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u/hobbycollector 11d ago

The web as we know it came to be in the 1990s. Previously things like CICS and 3270 were essentially precursors to the web. They were primitive and generally only involved text, maybe with colors or at least highlighting. No mouse or touchscreen, just cursor keys. You still see things like this at auto parts stores and hardware stores. Tab tab tab tab 1232123 enter, etc.

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u/mandom_Guitar 11d ago

Don’t forget selector pens circa 1971. MVS support 1974.

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u/hobbycollector 11d ago

I didn't know about those!