What is IT?
Information technology (
IT) is the application of
computers and
telecommunications equipment
to store, retrieve, transmit and manipulate data often in the context of a
business or other enterprise
The term is commonly used as a synonym for computers and computer networks,
but it also encompasses other
information distribution technologies such as television and
telephones. Several
industries are associated with information
technology, including
computer hardware,
software,
electronics,
semiconductors,
internet,
telecom equipment,
e-commerce and computer services.
Humans have been storing, retrieving, manipulating and communicating
information since the
Sumerians
in
Mesopotamia
developed
writing
in about 3000 BC, but the term
information technology in its modern
sense first appeared in a 1958 article published in the
Harvard Business Review; authors
Harold J.
Leavitt and Thomas L. Whisler commented that "the new
technology does not yet have a single established name. We shall call it
information technology (IT)." Their definition consists of three
categories: techniques for processing, the application of statistical and
mathematical methods to decision-making, and the simulation of higher-order thinking
through computer programs.
