Once upon a time computing was a batch process. Everything from application development to mission-critical processing happened in predetermined slots. Queues of work built up if any problem occurred. Computing power is now ubiquitous and cheap but batch processing still continues in many organisations. Batch running of applications, often overnight, still takes place not just because of the inheritance of legacy systems.
Batch processing is an attitude.
The attitude which stems from thinking of business as a cyclical process, be it hourly, daily, weekly or even monthly. The way we do business, though, is changing. We are moving to a world of 'always active' applications. But it is not the vastly increased availability of computing power or its concomitant drop in price that is bringing this change about. The forces producing change are twofold.