Meaning of IT

Introduction

In the beginning, computers were seen as a “giant machines” that made possible the automation of certain tasks in institutions of education/research, large companies and in the means of government. With the advancement technology, such machines began to to lose space for equipment becoming smaller, more powerful and more reliable. As if not enough, the evolution of telecommunications allowed to the few, the computers would communicate,despite being in places very distant geographically.

But realize that, from the machines to the most remote and modest up to the latest computers and advanced, the work with the information always been the center of everything. That is why the expression Technology Information (IT) is so popular. But what is this?

First of all, the information

The information is a patrimony, it is something that has value. When digital, is not it’s just a bunch of bytes agglomerates, but rather of a set data classified and organized in a way that a person, an education institution, a company or any another entity you can use for the sake of some goal.

In this sense, the information is so important that can even determine the survival or discontinuity of the activities of a business, for example. And it is not difficult to understand why. Just think of what would happen if a financial institution lost all the information of their clients or to imagine a the person getting rich from night to day to have been able to discover a valuable information by analyzing a large volume of data.

In the face of such relevance, large entities invest heavily in the resources required to obtain and maintain their information. That is why it is extremely rare to see companies, such as banks, networks of shops, and companies airlines losing data essential to the business. On the other hand, is quite frequent the use of inappropriate information or, even, the underutilization of these. It is at this point that the Technology of the Information can help.

Information technology

The Information Technology (IT) can be set as the set of all activities and solutions provided by computing resources that aim to enable the acquisition, the storage, access, management and use of the information. In fact, the applications for IT are many – are linked to the most diverse areas – that there are multiple definitions for the expression and none of them can determine it completely.

Since information is a patrimony, a well that it adds value and gives meaning to the activities that the use, it is necessary to make use of the features IT is appropriate, that is, it is a must to use tools, systems, or other means that make the information a differential. In addition addition, it is important to seek solutions that bring the results actually relevant, that is, that allow to transform the information into something with greater value, without leave consider the aspect of the lowest possible cost.

The issue is that there is no “magic formula” to determine how to make best use of the information.It all depends on the culture, market, segment and other factors related to the business or activity. The choices need to be well made, otherwise, unnecessary expenses or even a loss performance and competitiveness can be the consequence.

Take the following example: if a company renovates its park of computers buying machines with processors faster, lots of memory and video card for 3D employees who only need to use the Internet, working with packages from the office or access to the internal network, is making unnecessary expenses. Buy machines of good quality does not mean to acquire the most expensive and sotisticadas, but for those that have the necessary resources.

On the other hand, imagine that a company bought computers with GPUs performance and modest 17-inch monitor for professionals who working with AutoCAD. For these employees, the ideal would be to provide computers that support demanding applications and a monitor of at least 20 inches. Machines more cockroaches certainly are able to run the AutoCAD program, but with slowness. In addition, the monitor with area of vision less gives you more work to the professionals. In this case, one can see that the the acquisition of these equipment reflects directly to the productivity. For this reason, any decisions related IT needs to take into account the needs of each sector of each department, each activity, of each individual.

Look at this other example: a company with 50 employees, each a with a PC, you purchased a server for sharing and storage of files in the network that supports 500 users connected at the same time. If the company do not have expectation of increasing your frame employees, buy a server of this size is the same as buying a bus for a family of 5 people. But the problem is not only this: if the referred to server, for some reason, stop working, the files will be unavailable and certainly atrapalharão the activities of the company.

In this case, would it not be better to purchase a server more suitable the needs of the company and invest in resources availability to decrease the chances of the network to stop work? Or, perhaps, to study the possibility of hiring a the solution is based on computing in clouds specific to this purpose?

With these examples, it is possible to have a small idea which broad is the universe of Information Technology. Regardless of the application, there are still several other aspects that should be considered, for example: safety, availability, communication, use of appropriate systems (are they really should do what has been proposed), technologies (which is the best for a particular purpose), local legislation and so on.

The IT professional

The tasks of developing, implementing and updating solutions computational fit to the IT professionals. Because of its breadth, the area is divided into several specializations, as with any medicine, for example. Thus, you can find professionals for each of the following segments: database, development, infrastructure, networks, security, resource management, etc.

For each of these areas, there are subdivisions. For example, in development, there are professionals who work only with commercial software (such as ERP), others who work only with the creation of tools for mobile devices, others that focus your activities on the Internet, and so on.

As a rule, interested in pursuing a career in the area of IT do courses such as science computer science, engineering and computing information systems, but there are others even with focus, more technical, such as technology networks computers and technology in the database, in addition to cerificações and post-graduate courses for professionals already trained.

Ending

Who needs IT? In the current times, society as a whole. Today, the computerization reaches the most diverse areas of knowledge and is increasingly present in the daily lives of people, even when they do not realize.

If you declare income tax, your data are processed by computers of the government; if you take passport, its information are registered in a database data of the Federal Police (or other body competent, according to the country); if you do shopping at the market, pass by the box, which gives low of the products in the system of the company; for you to use the phone, a complex communication network controlled by computers is used. Finally, examples are not lacking.

Information Technology, therefore, is not only synonymous with modernity. It is, above all, a need of the new times, after all, the information has always existed, but not so voluminous and lucrative.

What Is Information Technology (It) 1