15-09-2017, 09:57 AM
Information technology (IT) is the application of computers to store, study, retrieve, transmit and manipulate data or information, often in the context of a company or another company. IT is considered a subset of information and communications technology (ICT). In 2012, Zuppo proposed a hierarchy of ICT in which each level of hierarchy "contains some degree of commonality in that they are related to technologies that facilitate the transfer of information and various types of electronically mediated communications."
The term is commonly used as a synonym for computers and computer networks, but also encompasses other information distribution technologies such as television and telephones. Several industries are associated with information technology, including hardware, software, electronics, semiconductors, the internet, telecommunications equipment and e-commerce.
Humans have been storing, retrieving, manipulating and communicating information since the Sumerians in Mesopotamia developed writing around 3000 BC, but the term information technology in its modern sense first appeared in a 1958 article published at Harvard Business Review; the authors Harold J. Leavitt and Thomas L. Whisler commented that "the new technology does not yet have a single established name, we will call it information technology." Its definition consists of three categories: processing techniques, the application of statistical and mathematical methods to decision-making, and the simulation of higher order thinking through software.
Based on the storage and processing technologies used, it is possible to distinguish four different phases of IT development: pre-mechanics (3000 BC-1450 AD), mechanical (1450-1840), electromechanical (1840-1940) and electronics (1940- I presented). This article focuses on the most recent (electronic) period, which began around 1940.