What exactly is Information Technology?
Information Technology, or IT, means different things to different people. Some folks may immediately think of Stephen King’s maniacal clown charging about the place being scary. Others may conjure the hapless antics of the lads in ‘The IT Crowd’. Neither of which would be correct of course. In fact, Information Technology is a blanket term coined in the 50’s. It describes IT as, ‘consisting of three basic parts: computational data processing, decision support, and business software’.
Information Technology is Rapidly Evolving
Although the definition hasn’t changed much since then, the technology certainly has. Back then, to carry around all the computation power packed into your mobile phone, you’d probably have to carry something approaching the size of a wardrobe on your back. In addition, what we’re seeing now with modern business IT is a rapid evolution of both equipment and software. In essence, the boxes are shrinking, the processes are becoming exponentially faster, and we expect complete connectivity across all devices and platforms.
The Challenges facing Information Technology Professionals
The challenges are many. Above all though, data security and adequate bandwidth provision may be two most prevalent issues today.
Bandwidth availability is constantly under pressure from increasing work forces and increasing expectations. Businesses today have a growing need to send larger and larger files between distant locations. These include full resolution videos and images, brochures and live streaming video conferences. In addition, remote work forces reporting through mobile tablets and cloud computing software structures provide further pressure.
Data security is the biggest issue. We’ve all read about the huge data breaches affecting millions of people around the globe. In fact, some of the big ones of the 21st century are staggering. Some 500 million Marriott guests had their personal information stolen. Ebay exposed the account information of 143 million users. Beyond this, the issues and threats include phishing attacks, weak passwords, unpatched devices, not encrypting your data, rogue insiders and malware.
If you’re serious about your business, you need to be serious about your Information Technology
It’s clear that the right Information Technology can provide huge benefits to your business. This means appropriate and secure technology that makes day-to-day running of your business more productive and less hassle. Moreover, gone are the days of even small businesses tackling their own IT needs. Not only are the systems more complex, but they’re probably better than you think. An experienced IT support and management company will quickly understand your immediate and future needs. They’ll provide easy to use, appropriate IT solutions that seamlessly scale up along your business.
