What is information technology?
Information technology is the process or set of procedures utilized to create, store, and exchange electronic data. It is commonly used in business operations to support the various tasks and activities of a company. Unlike personal computers, which are typically used for entertainment, for example, playing live casino games or personal purposes, IT is not used for the production or maintenance of data.
The term information technology was coined by the Harvard Business Review to distinguish between purpose-built machines that are designed to perform specific tasks and general-purpose computing devices that can be programmed to perform various tasks. As the industry evolved during the twentieth century, the computing capability of devices increased, while their energy consumption and cost decreased.
What does information technology encompass?
The information technology department of a company ensures that the various systems and applications that are used by its employees work properly. The department is also responsible for maintaining and deploying various applications and infrastructure, as well as monitoring and improving the performance of these systems. It also ensures that the security and governance of these systems are maintained.
Administration. The administrators are responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of an information technology (IT) environment as well as manage the various tasks related to the environment, such as the deployment and operation of systems and networks. Aside from maintaining a secure and stable environment, administrators additionally perform other duties such as training and monitoring employees.
Support. Support staff members are mainly responsible for answering questions and providing insight regarding the various aspects of technology. They also aid to manage multiple systems and applications, perform backups and recovery, monitoring and analyzing logs, and follow established workflows.
Applications. The help desk staff of IT support is composed of individuals who are knowledgeable about the various aspects of technology. They help administrators with everything from monitoring and managing the multiple aspects of their networks to resolving hardware and software issues.
Software is a vital component of businesses’ operations, and some of the applications that are commonly used are those that are acquired and deployed from third parties. However, many organizations retain a skilled developer team to maintain and improve the applications that are built using these tools.
Compliance. Due to the varying requirements of businesses, they are constantly looking for ways to improve their security and compliance. One of the most important factors that businesses consider when it comes to implementing a security policy is the involvement of their IT staff whose role is to monitor and secure access to their data and applications and involved in various security tasks and investigations.
Examples of information technology
So how is IT actually involved in day-to-day business? Consider five common examples of IT and teams at work:
Server upgrade
One or more data center servers are approaching the end of their maintenance and operational lifecycle. To ensure that the new hardware is working properly, the information technology department will perform a complete server upgrade. This process involves deploying new servers, testing their performance, and transferring data and applications to the new ones.
Security monitoring
In addition to monitoring and maintaining the various applications and infrastructure that they use, the information technology department also regularly receives reports about potential threats and non-compliant behavior. This process contributes to them identifying and resolving the issue before it affects their operations. By taking immediate action to address the issue, the department can improve the security posture of their organizations.
Business improvement
A business needs more availability from its critical applications to support its operations. The information technology department supports them to design a high-availability cluster that will allow them to maintain their applications’ performance and resilience during a single outage by developing a strategy that involves implementing a resilient and high-performance environment.
