The implementation of workflows in SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2010 remained largely the same from version to version. Microsoft did add some new functionality in SharePoint 2010, such as the ability to associate workflows with sites, and improved the workflow authoring tools, SharePoint Designer 2010 and Visual Studio 2010, from their predecessors. However, the implementation of workflow tasks, workflow forms, and the workflow server-side APIs remains largely unchanged.
In SharePoint 2010, Microsoft introduced features and capabilities that encouraged customers to move their customizations into sandboxed solution. These would run in an isolated process and were friendly to both types of SharePoint deployments: on-premises, where the SharePoint was installed on company servers and maintained by the company , and to the cloud, or more specifically, Office 365.
In SharePoint, Microsoft added even more capabilities; these updates were oriented toward cloud deployments. Specifically, Microsoft introduced the new SharePoint app model, which went further than the sandboxed solution in that, unlike sandboxed solution, they explicitly blocked server-side code from running in the SharePoint process. Microsoft also built up existing technologies in SharePoint, such as the client-side object model (CSOM), and introduced new capabilities, like support for app identities using OAuth.
And then, with the introduction of SharePoint, Microsoft introduced an entirely new workflow architecture and platform that reflect fundamental shifts in the product direction.
The most prominent change in the new architecture is that workflow execution in SharePoint no longer takes place in SharePoint. Instead, SharePoint uses a completely new execution engine: Workflow Manager 1.0. Workflow Manager hosts the Windows Workflow Foundation runtime and all the necessary services required by Windows Workflow Foundation. When a workflow is published, or a new instance of a published workflow is started, SharePoint notifies Workflow Manager, which in turn processes the workflow episodes. When the workflow access information in SharePoint, such as list item properties or user properties, it authenticates using the OAuth support and communicates over new and improved REST APIs.
These changes in the workflow architecture had significant impacts in certain areas, such as custom workflow forms, as discussed in the MSDN article How to: Create Custom SharePoint Workflow Forms with Visual Studio 2012. This article touches on one of the things that Microsoft added to SharePoint to support the new style of creating custom workflow forms: the improvements to the CSOM and addition of the Workflow Services CSOM API.