Fig. 7.1.7 Online applications.

The advent of the online transaction processing application had a profound and long-
lasting effect on business. For the first time, business was able to incorporate the
computer into the very fabric of business. Prior to online transaction processing, the
computer was useful to business. But with online transaction processing, the computer
became a normal aspect of the day-to-day processing that occurred.

Suddenly, with online transaction processing, there were reservation systems; bank teller
systems; ATM systems; and many, many more types of business applications.

Response Time and Availability

With the integration of the computer into business came a new concern. Suddenly, the
business was concerned with response time and availability. Response time was crucial to
the business ability to function properly. When the computer did not yield proper
response time, the business directly and immediately suffered. When the computer went
down and was unavailable, the business suffered.

Prior to online transaction processing systems, response time and availability were
theoretical subjects that were only of passing interest to the business. But in the face of
online transaction systems, response time and availability became central concerns of the
business.

Because of the elevated importance of response time and availability, there were

Chapter 7.1: The Operational Environment: A Short History