Information Technology, also commonly referred to as IT, is a term that encompasses all forms of technology used to create, store, exchange, and use information in its various forms including business data, conversations, news financial records and more. It can be said that Information Technology is the application of computing power and telecommunications to store, retrieve and transmit information. When we talk about Information Technology we are usually referring to the computer systems and networks that make up the infrastructure of an organization or company. However it can also refer to other types of technologies such as those used in audio-visual production and storage or even office equipment such as photocopiers and fax machines.
The history of Information Technology is closely linked with the history of computers. One of the earliest known examples of information technology was created by Charles Babbage in 1822 who designed a machine called the Difference Engine which was intended to tabulate polynomial functions. However it wasn’t until after World War II that digital computers began to be developed in earnest with early machines such as ENIAC being built during this time. Since then IT has continued to develop at a rapid pace with successive generations of computers becoming ever more powerful while shrinking in size. This trend has continued into the 21st century with smartphones and tablets now incorporating more computing power than early desktop PCs.
As well as hardware, software is another important aspect of IT. This includes not only operating systems but also applications which allow users to carry out specific tasks such as word processing or spreadsheets. The first real example of software was written by Ada Lovelace who created algorithms for Babbage’s Analytical Engine in 1843 which could have been used had the machine been completed (it wasn’t). In 1951 Grace Hopper wrote FLOW-MATIC which was one of the first programming languages based on English rather than mathematics and code symbols like earlier languages (such as FORTRAN) making it much easier for programmers to learn and use effectivelyFLOW-MATIC would go on inspire COBOL which is still widely used today particularly in business applications . Other notable milestones in software history include VisiCalc -the first spreadsheet program , WordStar -one