Information Technology - Definition and History

We use the term information technology or IT to refer to an entire industry. In actuality, information technology is the use of computers and software to manage information. In some companies, this is referred to as Management Information Services (or MIS) or simply as Information Services (or IS). The information technology department of a large company would be responsible for storing information, protecting information, processing the information, transmitting the information as necessary, and later retrieving information as necessary.
History of Information Technology:
In relative terms, it wasn't long ago that the Information Technology department might have consisted of a single Computer Operator, who might be storing data on magnetic tape, and then putting it in a box down in the basement somewhere. The history of information technology is fascinating! Check out these history of information technology resources for information on everything from the history of IT to electronics inventions and even the top 10 IT bugs.

A Key to Effective Information Management

Robust security is especially important during tough economic times, when unhappy employees might be more inclined to launch malicious attacks or gain access to unauthorized information. Recent reports show that instances of attack are rising with employee discontent.

And a new report by The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), a nonprofit organization that helps victims of identity theft resolve their cases, says data breaches increased dramatically in 2008.

Without strong security, the integrity of data and the reliability of systems and information are threatened. Customers and business partners might think twice about working with an organization that has repeated security breaches.

But keeping information and systems secure is an ongoing challenge. Threats and vulnerabilities keep changing and getting more sophisticated, and IT and security executives need to stay on top of the latest developments and address them, or their organizations will be at risk.

Explore the Next Frontiers in Data Management

Many start-ups and smaller businesses already depend on the cloud to manage many of their applications. IDC's latest report on the subject says that in the Asia-Pacific Rim, 11 percent of companies polled are already in the cloud, with another 41 percent evaluating or piloting cloud solutions. Furthermore, other IDC studies indicate that 26 percent of businesses use the cloud for IT management, 15 percent to bolster server and storage capacity, a quarter for collaboration and business applications, and 17 percent for application development and deployment. Senior IDC analyst Frank Gens says that ease and speed of deployment are the chief reasons behind the growth of the cloud.

Cost and efficiency are also advancing data warehousing and information management in the cloud. Omer Trajman, director of field engineering, Vertica, and a 10-year veteran of Cloud-based technologies, writes, "Cloud computing based on pay-as-you-go hardware infrastructure like Amazon or Google offers business intelligence users new data warehouse options that bring unlimited scalability without traditional data center overhead and budget constraints."

2010 Outlook: Cloud with a Chance of Analytics

Gartner recently forecast the top strategic technologies for 2010, and anyone who works in, reads about, or uses technology can probably guess what took the top spot: Cloud computing. Given the every-penny-counts nature of business these days, seeing analytics in the second spot isn't much of a surprise either.

The tremendous volatility and change that smacked the global economy has made keen, data-driven insight more valuable than ever. IBM seems to have analyzed its own data astutely, as the tech giant not only debuted a new Business Analytics Optimization unit in 2009,it also synthesized Gartner's two hottest technologies into a new offering called the Smart Analytics Cloud.

With the Smart Analytics Cloud, IBM is its own use case; the company created a private cloud to provide 200,000 of its employees around the world with access to real-time information about customers, suppliers and other contacts from nearly any location.