Information technology (IT)

What Is Information Technology?

The terms "information technology" or Simply "IT" are widely used in business and the field of computing. Over the years People use the terms generically when referring to various kinds of computer-related work, which sometimes confuses their meaning while the term Information technology refers to the study or use of systems (especially computers and Telecommunications) for Storing, Retrieving, and sending Information is known as Information Technology.

DEFINITION :

• According to lifewire :

A 1958 article in Harvard Business Review referred to information technology as consisting of three basic parts: computational data processing, decision support, and business software. This time period marked the beginning of IT as an officially defined area of business; in fact, this article probably coined the term.

• According to SearchDataCenter :

Information technology (IT) is the use of any computers, storage, networking, and other physical devices, infrastructure, and processes to create, process, store, secure, and exchange all forms of electronic data. Typically, IT is used in the context of enterprise operations as opposed to personal or entertainment technologies. The commercial use of IT encompasses both computer technology and telephony.
The term information technology was first coined by the Harvard Business Review, in order to make a distinction between purpose-built machines designed to perform a limited scope of functions and general-purpose computing machines that could be programmed for various tasks. As the IT industry evolved from the mid-20th century, computing capability advanced while device cost and energy consumption fell lower, a cycle that continues today when new technologies emerge.

• According to Wikipedia :

Information technology is the use of computers to store, retrieve, transmit, and manipulate data, or information, often in the context of a business or other enterprise. IT is considered to be a subset of information and communications technology.

• According to Technopedia :

Information Technology (IT) is a business sector that deals with computing, including hardware, software, telecommunications, and generally anything involved in the transmittal of information or the systems that facilitate communication

IT software and hardware

IT includes several layers of physical equipment (hardware), virtualization and management or automation tools, operating systems, and applications (software) used to perform essential functions. User devices, peripherals, and software, such as laptops, smartphones, or even recording equipment, can be included in the IT domain. IT can also refer to the architectures, methodologies, and regulations governing the use and storage of data.

Business applications include databases like SQL Server, transactional systems such as real-time order entry, email servers like Exchange, Web servers like Apache, customer relationship management, and enterprise resource planning systems. These applications execute programmed instructions to manipulate, consolidate, disperse, or otherwise affect data for a business purpose.

Computer servers run business applications. Servers interact with client users and other servers across one or more business networks. Storage is any kind of technology that holds information as data. Information can take any form including file data, multimedia, telephony data, and Web data, data from sensors, or future formats. Storage includes volatile random access memory (RAM) as well as non-volatile tape, hard disk, and solid-state flash drives.

IT architectures have evolved to include virtualization and cloud computing, where physical resources are abstracted and pooled in different configurations to meet application requirements. Clouds may be distributed across locations and shared with other IT users, or contained within a corporate data center, or some combination of both deployments.

IT education and job functions

A team of administrators and other technical staffers deploy and manage the company's IT infrastructure and assets. IT teams depend on a wide range of specialized information and technology skills and knowledge to support equipment, applications, and activities. Third-party contractors and IT vendor support personnel augment the IT team.

The information technology profession is extremely diverse. IT workers can specialize in fields like software development, application management, hardware components such as desktop support, server or storage administrator, and network architecture. Many businesses seek IT, professionals, with mixed or overlapping skill sets.

IT careers:

A career in Information Technology can involve working in or leading IT departments, product development teams, or research groups. Having success in this job field requires a combination of both technical and business skills.

Job posting sites commonly use IT as a category in their databases. The category includes a wide range of jobs across architecture, engineering, and administration functions. People with jobs in these areas typically have college degrees in computer science and/or information systems. They may also possess related industry certifications. Short courses in IT basics can be also be found online and are especially useful for those who want to get some exposure to the field before committing to it as a career.

Over the ensuing decades, many corporations created so-called "IT departments" to manage the computer technologies related to their business. Whatever these departments worked on became the definition of Information Technology, one that has evolved over time. Today, IT departments have responsibilities in areas like:

Computer tech support
Business computer network and database administration
Business software deployment

Information security
Especially during the dot-com boom of the 1990s, Information Technology also became associated with aspects of computing beyond those owned by IT departments. This broader definition of IT includes areas like:

Software development
Computer systems architecture
Project management

Issues and Challenges in Information Technology :

As computing systems and capabilities continue expanding worldwide, "data overload" has become an increasingly critical issue for many IT professionals. Efficiently processing huge amounts of data to produce useful business intelligence requires large amounts of processing power, sophisticated software, and human analytic skills.
Teamwork and communication skills have also become essential for most businesses to manage the complexity of IT systems. Many IT professionals are responsible for providing service to business users who are not trained in computer networking or other information technologies but who are instead interested in simply using IT as a tool to get their work done efficiently.
System and network security issues are a primary concern for many business executives, as any security incident can potentially damage a company's reputation and cost large sums of money.

Computer Networking and Information Technology

Because networks play a central role in the operation of many companies, business computer networking topics tend to be closely associated with Information Technology. Networking trends that play a key role in IT include:

• Network capacity and performance: 

The popularity of online video has greatly increased the demand for network bandwidth both on the Internet and on IT networks. New types of software applications that support richer graphics and deeper interaction with computers also tend to generate larger amounts of data and hence network traffic. Information technology teams must plan appropriately not just for their company's current needs but also this future growth.

• Mobile and wireless usages: 

IT network administrators must now support a wide array of smartphones and tablets in addition to traditional PCs and workstations. IT environments tend to require high-performance wireless hotspots with roaming capability. In larger office buildings, deployments are carefully planned and tested to eliminate dead spots and signal interference.

• Cloud services : 

Whereas IT shops in the past maintained their own server farms for hosting email and business databases, some have migrated to cloud computing environments where third-party hosting providers maintain the data. This change in the computing model dramatically changes the patterns of traffic on a company network, but it also requires significant effort in training employees on this new breed of applications.

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