Information TechnologyInformation Technology

Information technology (IT for short) stands for the technology for electronic data processing (EDP) and the hardware and software infrastructure used for this purpose. In industrialised countries, considerable parts of administration, organisation, communication and entertainment are realised by means of information technology. The determining principles of information technology are digital microelectronics, software technology and EDP organisation. Their scientific treatment takes place in computer science.

Actually, the term is specifically understood to mean electronic information technology (EIT); non-electronic systems (such as the initially purely electrical telephony and telegraphy) also belong to information technology. However, the actual technical term is (electronic) information and data processing (EID), which combines the initially separate techniques of communication media ('information' in the original sense of communication) and data processing in the narrower sense (EDP applications for the programmed processing of files, series of numbers, tables, etc.). Since the two terms information and data have largely merged in practice today in terms of content, just as technology and processing cannot be separated, the term 'IT' is used for the entire technological sector.

The expressions information technology and information technology can - in the non-scientific field - be regarded as synonymous: "technology" is usually understood to mean, at most, specifically the concrete practical implementation (application), "technology" the research and development and the theoretical foundations. In the highly innovative sector, as with software, this is hardly separable.

As a contemporary illustration for the classification of IT in superordinate systems, a consideration in the 3-level model is suitable. It shows connected technical systems and their benefits for individual users or for processes in organisations:

Another view of IT, the view of the services offered by IT, is offered by the concept of SOA (service-oriented architecture).

 

This project is currently under construction.