History of Data Processing

Data Processing is the pivot of the computer industry, just as the Internet is the pivot of databases. Data Processing is older than electronic computers by almost 60 years.

It was used to analyze the US census in 1890. The US Census Bureau contracted Herman Hollerith to build a special-purpose Data Processing system, that recorded data by punching holes in a data card. These cards were forwarded to a census office, where mechanical card readers were used, to read the holes in each card, and mechanical adding machines were used to tabulate the results. Harvard Mark 1 was one of the computers designed for Data Processing functions.

The role of the electronic computer in data processing began with the invention of ENIAC, followed by UNIVAC. In 1953, IBM produced the first of its computers IBM 701 used for commercial Data Processing. Different computers were designed for business data processing and scientific data processing.