早期云計(jì)算如同從圖書館借書

戴夫·格什戈恩

The idea of cloud computing， which is really just multiple people using the same computer hardware at the same time， has been around since some of the first computer systems.

Before the internet， there was ARPANet1， an experimental government-funded prototype2 for a connected communications network of computers.

But before ARPANet， there was another technology called time-sharing3. It was a glimpse of our own connected future—well before the dawn4 of the personal computer， the smartphone， or even the web.

Time-sharing was a way of computing where a user would type into a typewriter-like terminal connected to a phone line. That phone line would connect to a larger computer somewhere else in the US. The code typed into the terminal would be transmitted to the larger computer， which would run the code and then send the output back through the phone lines to the user.

How time-sharing began

Through the mid-20th century， scientists worked at transforming the computer from a mechanical machine to an electronic one， shrinking the hardware from the size of a room to something that fit on a desk. But even these early， clunky5 electronic computers were still only capable of running one persons program a time， and generally were only found at universities and government research facilities. Everyone else at the research center would have to wait until the current programmer was done， and then reconfigure the computer for their use afterward. This hassle6 led to the development of a process called “time-sharing，” where computers could automatically handle a queue of codes to execute one after another.

One of the first projects to tackle7 time-sharing was MITs Project MAC8， according to 1965 MIT graduate and then Project MAC contributor Tom Van Vleck.

“Time-sharing a single computer among multiple users was proposed as a way to provide interactive computing to more than one person at a time， in order to support more people and to reduce the amount of time programmers had to wait for results，” he wrote in 2014.

This is essentially the same idea that big tech companies are using today， but the speed and scale has been exponentially9 increased. Instead of simple mathematical equations10 among a handful of researchers， billions of lines of code are being run from millions of different users on tens of thousands of servers. These servers are just high-powered11 computers， custom-built12 to work together， and still take up entire warehouses， but can accomplish many orders of magnitude13 more computing than their earlier room-sized ancestors.

The idea of time-sharing and linking computers together in the 1960s would be formative14 for decades to come. In 1968， J. C. R. Licklider15， a director at the US Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency （ARPA）， wrote a paper titled “Compu-ters as a Communications Device” that would sketch out the basis of the internet and the idea of connecting compu-ters to one another， which influenced the creation of ARPANet itself.

“It appears that the best and quickest way… to move forward the deve-lopment of interactive communities of geographically separated people—is to set up an experimental network of multiaccess computers，” he wrote.

Making money selling computer processing

In the 1960s， computers were marketed to mathematicians and scientists because of their enormous cost. But with time-sharing， which could be done from long distances over a phone line， the cost of the hardware was distributed across many customers， meaning access could be cheaper. The institutions that at first were only using computers for mathematics found that they could use computers for office automation tasks like payroll and mailings and forms and simple databases.

In the years after Lickliders paper， about 150 businesses formed in the US to provide time-sharing services， according to the Computer History Museum. Small， portable typewriters with simplistic computer chips would be rented on a monthly basis， and when plugged into a phone line， these terminals would connect to a large computer elsewhere in the country. Customers were charged for how much computing power they used.

The 1980s saw the introduction of smaller， more affordable microchips， leading to the era of the personal computer， led by the likes of Apple and IBM. Time-sharing started to feel unnecessary， as many had now machines at their offices or homes， and didnt need to call into a computer somewhere else to get their work done.

But it wasnt long before the idea of “cloud computing” sprang up16. In 1997， entrepreneur Sean OSullivan filed a trademark on the phrase “cloud computing，” according to MIT Technology Review. （The trademark is now dead.） OSullivans company was hammering out a contract with PC manufacturer Compaq17， where OSullivan would provide the software for Compaqs server hardware. The two would in turn sell that technology to burgeoning18 internet service providers like AOL， who could offer new computing services to their customers.

The first mention of the technology was scribbled19 in a daily planner in 1997， inside the offices of Compaq Computer， where a small group of technology executives was plotting the future of the Internet business and calling it “cloud computing.” Their vision was detailed and prescient20. Not only would all business software move to the Web， but what they termed “cloud computing-enabled applications” like consumer file storage would become common. Compaq predicted that enterprise software， which needed to be directly installed on users computers， would be usurped21 by cloud services distributed over the internet， what we now call “Software as a Service” or SaaS.

Thats the world we live in today. But it all started with time-sharing， and the simple idea that you could book time on someone elses computer.

自第一批計(jì)算機(jī)系統(tǒng)問世以來，云計(jì)算的概念就產(chǎn)生了。云計(jì)算，實(shí)際上就是多個(gè)人同時(shí)使用一套計(jì)算機(jī)硬件。

先于互聯(lián)網(wǎng)出現(xiàn)的，還有由政府資助的計(jì)算機(jī)互聯(lián)通信網(wǎng)絡(luò)實(shí)驗(yàn)原型——阿帕網(wǎng)。

而在阿帕網(wǎng)之前，還有一種叫作分時(shí)的技術(shù)。這種技術(shù)讓我們初步感知了網(wǎng)絡(luò)互聯(lián)的未來，后來很久才出現(xiàn)了個(gè)人電腦、智能手機(jī)甚或網(wǎng)絡(luò)。

分時(shí)是一種用戶使用連接電話線的打字機(jī)式終端進(jìn)行輸入的計(jì)算方式。電話線會(huì)連接到美國(guó)其他地方的一臺(tái)大型計(jì)算機(jī)上。大型計(jì)算機(jī)在收到輸入終端的代碼之后，會(huì)運(yùn)行代碼，并通過電話線將輸出內(nèi)容返回給用戶。

分時(shí)技術(shù)的起源

在整個(gè)20世紀(jì)中葉，科學(xué)家們都致力于將計(jì)算機(jī)從機(jī)械化轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)殡娮踊?，將硬件從房間大小縮減到桌面大小。但即便是這些笨重的早期電子計(jì)算機(jī)，一次也只能運(yùn)行一個(gè)人的程序，并且通常只有大學(xué)和政府研究機(jī)構(gòu)才有。研究中心的其他所有人都必須等正在使用的程序員完事了，再重新配置計(jì)算機(jī)供自己接下來使用。這種窘境促進(jìn)了 “分時(shí)”處理的發(fā)展，讓計(jì)算機(jī)能夠自動(dòng)輪流處理一列代碼。

據(jù)1965年畢業(yè)于麻省理工學(xué)院的湯姆·范弗利克介紹，麻省理工學(xué)院的“數(shù)學(xué)與計(jì)算”項(xiàng)目是最早研究分時(shí)技術(shù)的項(xiàng)目之一，他當(dāng)時(shí)曾參與此項(xiàng)目。

他于2014年寫道：“提出由多名用戶分時(shí)使用同一臺(tái)計(jì)算機(jī)的方法，為多人同時(shí)提供交互式計(jì)算，由此支持更多人共用，并縮短程序員等候結(jié)果的時(shí)間?！?/p>

如今，大型科技公司仍在使用基本相同的概念，只是速度和規(guī)模已呈指數(shù)級(jí)增長(zhǎng)——不再是少數(shù)幾個(gè)研究人員運(yùn)行簡(jiǎn)單的數(shù)學(xué)方程式，而是數(shù)萬(wàn)個(gè)服務(wù)器同時(shí)為數(shù)百萬(wàn)名用戶運(yùn)行數(shù)十億行代碼。這些服務(wù)器是特殊定制、可協(xié)同工作的大功率計(jì)算機(jī)，雖然體積依然大到占滿整個(gè)庫(kù)房，但完成運(yùn)算指令的數(shù)量級(jí)比房間大小的早期計(jì)算機(jī)大得多。

1960年代的分時(shí)概念和計(jì)算機(jī)互聯(lián)概念對(duì)接下來的幾十年產(chǎn)生了深遠(yuǎn)影響。1968年，美國(guó)國(guó)防部高級(jí)研究計(jì)劃局的一位負(fù)責(zé)人J. C. R.利克萊德曾經(jīng)寫過一篇題為“計(jì)算機(jī)作為通信設(shè)備”的論文，描繪了互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的基本原理和計(jì)算機(jī)互聯(lián)的概念，促使了阿帕網(wǎng)的誕生。

他寫道：“看來，促使地理上分隔的人們建立互動(dòng)社區(qū)的最好最快的方法是，設(shè)立一個(gè)多路存取計(jì)算機(jī)實(shí)驗(yàn)網(wǎng)絡(luò)?！?/p>

計(jì)算機(jī)進(jìn)入大眾消費(fèi)市場(chǎng)

1960年代，由于成本巨大，計(jì)算機(jī)只被推銷給數(shù)學(xué)家和科學(xué)家。但有了分時(shí)技術(shù)之后，通過電話線遠(yuǎn)程接入，硬件成本可以由眾多客戶分?jǐn)?，這意味著使用計(jì)算機(jī)變得更便宜了。最初只將計(jì)算機(jī)用于計(jì)算的機(jī)構(gòu)發(fā)現(xiàn)，他們可以使用計(jì)算機(jī)完成制作工資單、發(fā)郵件、制表和建立簡(jiǎn)單數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù)等自動(dòng)化辦公任務(wù)了。

據(jù)計(jì)算機(jī)歷史博物館記載，在利克萊德發(fā)表論文后的數(shù)年內(nèi)，約有150家提供分時(shí)服務(wù)的企業(yè)于美國(guó)成立。帶有簡(jiǎn)單計(jì)算機(jī)芯片的小型便攜式打字機(jī)按月出租。插上電話線，這些終端就可以連接上美國(guó)其他地方的一臺(tái)大型計(jì)算機(jī)。客戶使用多少計(jì)算能力，就支付多少費(fèi)用。

1980年代，體積更小、更便宜的微型芯片出現(xiàn)了，由此進(jìn)入了由蘋果和IBM等巨頭引領(lǐng)的個(gè)人電腦時(shí)代。許多人在辦公室或家里配備了計(jì)算機(jī)，無須再調(diào)用其他地方的計(jì)算機(jī)來完成工作，因此分時(shí)技術(shù)開始變得可有可無。

但在不久之后，“云計(jì)算”的概念就開始生根發(fā)芽。據(jù)《麻省理工學(xué)院技術(shù)評(píng)論》記載，企業(yè)家肖恩·歐蘇利文于1997年用“云計(jì)算”一詞注冊(cè)了商標(biāo)。（目前該商標(biāo)已過期。）歐蘇利文的公司與個(gè)人電腦制造商康柏公司簽訂了合同，歐蘇利文為康柏的服務(wù)器硬件提供軟件。兩家公司繼而將這項(xiàng)技術(shù)銷售給美國(guó)在線等新興互聯(lián)網(wǎng)服務(wù)提供商，這些提供商向其客戶提供新型計(jì)算服務(wù)。

這項(xiàng)技術(shù)第一次被提及是在1997年，是在康柏公司辦公室的一張日程表上潦草寫下的，幾位技術(shù)高管規(guī)劃著這項(xiàng)因特網(wǎng)業(yè)務(wù)的未來，并稱其為“云計(jì)算”。他們的愿景既詳實(shí)又高遠(yuǎn)。他們不僅計(jì)劃將所有的商業(yè)軟件轉(zhuǎn)移到網(wǎng)上，還計(jì)劃普及客戶文件存儲(chǔ)等所謂的“云計(jì)算應(yīng)用程序”。康柏預(yù)測(cè)，需要直接安裝在用戶計(jì)算機(jī)上的企業(yè)軟件將被分布在互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上的各種云服務(wù)（現(xiàn)稱為“軟件即服務(wù)”，簡(jiǎn)稱SaaS）所取代。

我們?nèi)缃窬蜕硖幵谶@樣的世界。但這一切都始于分時(shí)技術(shù)，源于你可以預(yù)約使用他人計(jì)算機(jī)的這一簡(jiǎn)單概念。

（譯者為“《英語(yǔ)世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎(jiǎng)?wù)撸?/p>