Information technology (IT) is that the application of computers and telecommunications instrumentation to store, retrieve, transmit and manipulate information,[1] typically within the context of a business or different enterprise.[2]
The term is often used as an equivalent word for laptops and computer networks, however it additionally encompasses different data delivery technologies like TV and telephones. many industries square measure related to data technology, together with component, software, physics, semiconductors, internet, telecommunication equipment, engineering, healthcare, e-commerce and laptop services.[3][a]
Humans are storing, retrieving, manipulating and human action data since the Sumerians in geographic region developed writing in regarding 3000 BC,[5] however the term data technology in its fashionable sense initial appeared in an exceedingly 1958 article revealed within the Harvard Business Review; authors Harold J. Leavitt and Thomas L. Whistler observed that "the new technology doesn't nevertheless have one established name. We have a propensity to shall decision it data technology (IT)." Their definition consists of 3 categories: techniques for process, the applying of applied math and mathematical strategies to decision-making, and also the simulation of higher-order thinking through laptop programs.[6]
Based on the storage and process technologies used, it's potential to tell apart four distinct phases of IT development: pre-mechanical (3000 BC – 1450 AD), mechanical (1450–1840), mechanical device (1840–1940) and electronic (1940–present).[5] this text focuses on the foremost recent amount (electronic), that began in regarding 1940.