The storage and networking bandwidth available today is amazing. I started working on mini computers in the late 70's that had 128mb main memory and 2.5MB disk drives (that were 16-18" in diameter). We could run a full network, mulitple users, and have several real time process control / monitoring tasks running in the background.

In about 1980 we had a 1 mips (million instructions per sec) mini with 2MB main memory and two 67 MB disks. I was in heaven. We ran 70 users (with a limited application), 4 memory only computers operating real time scales, and 2 full conveyor systems. Of course this took about 5 man-years of programming to get all this to fit and work. This computer was size of 3 refrigerators and cost $300,000.

The computers today are amazing in all facets; computation speed, ease of development, networking, storage, and user interface. Just look at the home capabilities for digital photography and video. My daughter has a phone with a MICRO sd card (about 1/4" square) with 2gb's of storage on it.

Chuck