Below is an advertisement for the IBM System/360 mainframe computer from the 1960s.
What is remarkable about the ad is the language we see used in it. For example, “You can easily increase the size of System/360 when your business grows or you want to add new applications.“
If you’ve been anywhere near the cloud computing services of 2025 (like AWS, Azure, or GCP), you’ll immediately recognize that they are marketed in a similar way. Replace “System/360” with “cloud services” and you get: You can easily increase the size of cloud services when your business grows or you want to add new applications.
The ad continues, “You don’t have to revise most of your programs. You don’t have to switch to new input and output devices.” We’ve since dropped the term “input and output”, and now just call it a “device” (or maybe something more specific like a “mobile device.”)
And “Any program that works on the smallest configuration can work on the largest.” Today, people would say “the design is scalable” – but it’s the same idea.
Then there’s “System/360 solves today’s problems. And it expands to solve tomorrow’s problems, too.” I wonder if the creators of this product had any idea, that 60 years later, the same solutions would be still be sold to businesses?
