Information Technology

1 Abstract

In todays fast-paced growing world, we heavily rely on the technology around us to help us in our daily lives. From the moment you woke up with your alarm clock that plays music from your phone, to when you watch TV after a long day, technology is always there. How did all of this technology get here or evolve into what we know today? It all started with simple pictures and language, then slowly evolved into the technology we know today. Information Technology has also affected our businesses and the economy because Information Technology gives the businesses the power to make smarter decisions and thrive. In addition, IT has the highest demand for smart, trained, and qualified people. Information Technology is changing the world, one byte at a time. Information Technology is an ever growing field in the world because more and more people are using technology everyday for all of their tasks. Technology is always evolving to the current demands. Many people prefer the use of technology because it never has feelings, calls in sick, doesn't need to be paid, and takes orders willingly. What many people dont realize are the people who make it possible for all of these devices work properly every day. That is where I and my program comes in. What we do is we build, deploy, and maintain all of this technology. From the computer that you surf the internet on to the cell phone on which you call people, technicians in my field make it all possible. Information Technology is a growing field that has had a rich history, made significant contributions to the world, and has had people make contributions to the field. Like every story, the story of Information Technology starts with the first time man communicated. Using language and simple drawings, information was communicated to people in a way that everyone can understand. In the mechanical age, between 1450 and 1840 C.E.

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(Common Era), we began to take our information and connect it to technology that we know today. This age is when the first analog computer was built, which was the slide rule (an analog computer used to multiply and divide). As we progress though time, about 1950, we built the first analog computer that could store information. In analog computing, there are four main sections, vacuum tubes and punch cards, rotating magnetic drums for internal storage, magnetic tape, and circuits with magnetic cores. (Brady & Elkner, 2011). A few years later came the creation of the IBM PC machine, the Apple 1, and many other home computers which eventually evolved into the computers we know today. So what is Information Technology? Information Technology is technology that manages information in ways we can communicate whether it be from person to person or computer to computer. Another way of describing it would be Information Processing. Information Processing is the process of collecting storing, and sharing data. This is very important in many others fields such as science, medicine, and business. Only by finding order in the mass of data, and answers to specific questions, does the information take on meaning. Broadly speaking, the goal of information processing is to make information available, intelligible, and useful to human beings. (Gale Group, 2007). What this means that we need to process information in a way that it can benefit a person, entity, or task. This information that we have been able to process and present it in a fashion has allowed businesses to make better decisions about their practices and also predict what will happen in the future if we change some of the information. This can lead to Information Technology affecting the economy. Information Technology has impacted the economy because of its ability to process information and give us the information in a way we can understand. Technology has given many businesses, both large and small, the tools to make better business decisions, increase

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productivity, increase efficiency in manufacturing, and manage finances. When businesses thrive, more people are working, and thus have more money to spend in the economy. In addition, when these businesses take their technologies and deploy them, it adds jobs for people like me in the field to create, deploy, and maintain this technology. Technology has created a cycle of economical growth in the nation that is the path forward for the sustained economic growth. Technology can become expensive to purchase, maintain, and update. For many small businesses, the storage and processing capability they need is too expensive to purchase and maintain onside. Fortunately, cloud applications have been created to solve this problem. The cloud is a virtual word, meaning, that the cloud is really a large, off-site data center that companies pay to have their data securely stored off-site and accessible on-line. This information is available anytime, anywhere, to anyone who needs it without the need to hire a on-site IT staff, or buy expensive equipment. This practice adds to the cycle of growth that was mentioned in the previous paragraph. The data center employes IT people to maintain and develop more efficient ways to manage the servers. It also gives the small businesses the money to hire more people and get more people in the workforce. So it's no surprise that the [Barack] Obama White House declared a "cloud-first" policy two years ago. The Office of Management and Budget said that if each department and agency moved just three projects to the cloud, the government would save $5 billion. (Technology and the Cloud, 2013) As mention in the quote, the White House saved five billion dollars by switching to the cloud. This provided more jobs to IT people and allowed the government to be more efficient by not having to worry about information storage.

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So who are the people that were instrumental in bringing technology to the masses There are two primary, well known people that are responsible for much of the technology we know today. The first person is Steve Jobs. He was born in 1955 and was shortly adopted by a California couple. Early as a child, he showed an interest in electronics and even asked the president of HP for some parts for a class project. This request was actually what landed him his first internship. (Contemporary Heroes and Heroines, 2009) Jobs began working for HP in the summer and he was always bringing home parts to work on his gadgets. His experiments eventually led to him and one of his friends creating the first computer made for home use...the Apple I. While there were regular PCs already invented, Jobs computer was the first one that was made and priced for home computer usage. As he progressed though his life, he found that he would experience some failures along the way. The Apple III was one of those failures when it failed to meet the needs of the changing market. This didnt disappoint him though; he got back up and kept on going, but the next time able to do it even better than before. These failures led up to the creation of the first iPod and iTunes, iPhone, iMac, MacBook, and iPad. Another person that has affected the field of Information Technology is Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft. In Gates early life, he quickly found the power of relationships and how important they are. Unlike Steve Jobs, he was raised by his biological parents, went to a private school, and had access to most anything he wanted. At his private school, he was able to do work on the schools network system and is considered the creator of the first virus. He figured out how to create a program that replicates and destroys data on massive amounts of computer. He uploaded the program to the main computer of the network and caused the who network to crash. As he grew up, he co-founded the company of Microsoft, the maker of Windows, which at the time was the only operating system available. During that time, they were more focused on

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designing Windows for the business world and not to the traditional household, however, the Supreme court ruled that Microsoft had a monopoly on the computer software industry. The company almost had to be split up, but was saved when Apple came into the market. With all of this technology, there has to be someone to manage it, which is where many of us in the IT field come in. We build, deploy, and maintain all of this technology to the billions of computers in this world. Salaries can range from $45,558 at a entry level position and a professional can earn over $78,140. In addition, employers also offer holidays, vacations, health insurance, pension, and sometimes profit sharing. This is the fastest growing field in the world today because of the massive demand for the technology. Some companies even pay for you to go to collage, then come and work for them when you graduate. The supply of trained Information Technology people is quite low and companies will offer great incentives to lure a great IT person to their company because many business owners know that technology is the backbone of the world and they need someone to bring their company to the latest standards. In conclusion, Information Technology is a field that has an extensive history, has made several big contribution to the world, and has had many people inspire the field. Without Information Technology, our world would not have grown or evolved as extensively because we would be still stuck doing inefficient manual labor or calculating math by hand. Information Technology is a field where there is no stopping it, and we must embrace it. If we dont we might find that we are limiting ourselves and our capabilities.

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6 References

Career Information Center. (n.d.). Management information systems (MIS) professional. Retrieved May 11, 2013, from http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/suic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?failOver Type=&query=&prodId=SUIC&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&mode=vie&di splayGroupName=Reference&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=&displayGrou ps=&sortBy=&source=&search_within_results=&action=e&catId=&activityType=&scan Id=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ2123100356 Contemporary Heroes and Heroines. (1990). Steven jobs. In Gale Biography in Context. Retrieved March 15, 2013, from http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?failOver Type=&query=&prodId=BIC1&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&mode=view& displayGroupName=Reference&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=true&display Groups=&sortBy=&source=&search_within_results=&action=e&catId=&activityType= &scanId=&documentId=GALE|K1607000138 Encyclopedia of World Biography. (1998). William henry gates, III. In Gale Biography in Context. Retrieved March 15, 2013, from http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?failOver Type=&query=&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&mode=view&displayGroupN ame=Reference&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=true&displayGroups=&sort By=&source=&search_within_results=&action=e&catId=GALE|00000000MPWT&activ ityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE|K1631002447 Flynn, R. R. (2002). Analog Computing. In Gale Virtual Reference Library. Retrieved May 11,

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go.galegroup.com.ilsweb.lvccld.org/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELE VANCE&inPS=true&prodId=GVRL&userGroupName=lvccld_main&tabID=T003&sear chId=R1&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=AdvancedSe archFormtPosition=1&contentSet=GALE%7CCX3401200014&&docId=GALE|CX340 1200014&docType=GALE A History of Information Technology and Systems. (n.d.). Information Technology History. Retrieved May 11, 2013, from http://www.tcf.ua.edu/AZ/ITHistoryOutline.htm History Of Information Technology. (n.d.). History Of Information Technology Introduction to Information and Communication Technology. Retrieved May 11, 2013, from http://openbookproject.net/courses/intro2ict/history/history.html The Information Age. (n.d.). Information Technology Has Transformed the U.S. Economy. Retrieved March 13, 2013, from http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?failO verType=&query=&prodId=OVIC&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&mode=vie w&displayGroupName=Viewpoints&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=false&d isplayGroups=&sortBy=&source=&search_within_results=&action=e&catId=&activityT ype=&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ3010298215& Information proccessing. (2007). In Gale Student Resources in Context. Retrieved May 11, 2013, from http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/scic/ReferenceDetailsPage/ReferenceDetailsWindow?failOver Type=&query=&prodId=SCIC&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&mode=view& displayGroupName=Reference&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=false&source

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=&sortBy=&displayGroups=&action=e&catId=&activityType=&scanId=&documentId= GALE|CV2424500318&&userGroupName=nvk12&jsid=969c31324fd78b5957485ca2dd de1ab2 Policing the Internet. (2012). The government should not regulate the internet. In Gate Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Retrieved May 11, 2013, from http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?failO verType=&query=&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&mode=view&displayGrou pName=Viewpoints&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=&displayGroups=&sort By=&source=&search_within_results=&action=e&catId=&activityType=&scanId=&doc umentId=GALE%7CEJ3010466219 Technology and the Cloud. (2013). Cloud technology will create jobs. In Gale Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Retrieved March 15, 2013, from http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?failO verType=&query=&prodId=OVIC&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&mode=vie w&displayGroupName=Viewpoints&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=false&d isplayGroups=&sortBy=&source=&search_within_results=&action=e&catId=&activityT ype=&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CEJ3010846208

Information Technology Jacob House Period 5 May 10, 2013 West Career and Technical Academy

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