intro to it - d322
Given this course description:
Introduction to IT examines information technology as a discipline and the various roles and functions of the IT department as business support. Students are presented with various IT disciplines including systems and services, network and security, scripting and programming, data management, and business of IT, with a survey of technologies in every area and how they relate to each other and to the business.
data and info management - the it functions focuses on the efficient storage and dissemination of organization data and information to support its effective use. IT professionals build systems to enable storage, retrieval, analysis, and use of organization data and information with an eye on disaster recovery and business continuity to mitigate the high costs of losing data.
networks - networks support communication between the elements of an IT system. They are put in place to enable the exchange of data between organizational servers and to give employees access to resources. This includes any remote employees. Networking technologies rely on hardware and software to connect computer systems and data repositories, whether they are a few feet apart from each other in a single room or thousands of miles apart on separate continents.
Systems Intergration - info technology infrastructure includes a variety of different systems. An organization may use one system to support the managing of its human resources and another to track the progress of ongoing projects.
Different systems used by an organization often need to work together, perhaps even retrieving data from each other. When a system is introduced or updated, it needs to seamlessly work with the other elements of the infrastructure.
Vendors provide IT equipment, software, and services. The deployment of those systems in an organization often requires setting up and configuring the product to align with the specific organizational needs and to integrate with other systems already in use. In these cases, IT professionals engage in complex activities to ensure the new product integrates with the organization’s infrasture ecosystem.
core components of IT software
objective: descrive user needs and other information system requirements, including security and accessibility functions.
Software development - implements various algorithms that transform data from one form into another, perform calculations, manipulate files, or complete other tasks that may be repetitive, time-consuming, or dangerous to an employee. A few examples of tasks software systems perform include controlling the movements of industrial robotic arms, sending emails, and editing texts.
orgs strive to provide the best combination of software products to their employees to support business processes. Identifying and implementing systems that can help the organization perform taks more efficiently or provide novel services to clients can help organizations gain competitive advantages in their respective industries and elevate their reputation.
business analysis, security
The business of IT
web development - websites can generally be classified as either intranet, internet or extranet. Resources available for the public are on the internet, including commercial sites (e-commerce), blogs, social media, and news. Resources only available for users or systems of a specific organization are on the intranet.
Things like properietary information and sensitive employee information are examples of what is typically places on an organization’s intranet. Using an intranet for this kind of data helps protext sensitive information while still facilitating widespread communication through the org. An extranet makes resources available within an organization, but it also makes that information available to other specific organizations or users, such as contracted, third party consultants.
Business intelligence
An org creates and gathers large quantities of data during the course of business. The data, when appropriately organized and analyzed, may tell compelling stories about the current state of the organization or the industry as a whole, its customers’ needs and wants, or specific trends that support informed decision-making. Organizations gather data to suppport their decision-making process and discover opportunities to better serve their customers, optimize their processes and maintain or gain a competitive advatage in an industry.
Project management
Outoging services
IT as a discipline - topic for 2.2
the computing disciplines - five of the most commonly recognized computing disciplines include computer engineering, computer science, software engineering, info systems, and information technology.
computer engineering - focuses on the design of hardware systems and the software that makes them work. Having to write drivers for peripheral devices, such as keyboards and printers — c.e addresses the development of solutions that use computers embedded in other devices like alarm systems, refrigerators, and self-driving cars.
computer science addresses the design and implementation of software with an emphasis on developing effective ways to solve computing problems and creating new ways to use computers. It encompasses a range of computing related tasks such as robotics, ai, augmented reality, and algorithms designed to solve problems.
software engineering - their problem space - large software systems are constructed across enterprises to meet business requirements and suport business critical acitivities. SE focuses on the development and maintenance of reliable and efficient software systems.
Information systems - their focus is to intergrate IT solutions menat ot meet organizational business goals. This computing discipline addresses systme that generate, process and distribute info and support organizational communication and collab, their desing and their implementation.
IT - it focuses more on the technology supporting information systems in an organization rather than the information residing on the systems or being communicated with them. In this sense, IT responds to the practical needs of the organization, including reliable and secure solutions that are appropriately maintained, updated and replaced.
Computer hardware and history -
the abacus - today’s computer systems are the result of significant thought and technological developments spanning centuries. First used in China - Their positions represent stored values. To carry out calculations, the abacus needs a human operator; otherwise, it is merely data storage. Thus, the abacus must be combined with a human to form a system whose purpose is to carry out additions.
The Leibniz machine
The data was initially entered by mechanically positioning the gears in a specific gear position. The final gear position represents the output of the calculations. One such machine is the Leibniz machine in which the gears of the machine are initially mechanically set in a postion that represents the input and their final state represents the output of the calculations.
Ada Lovelace - published a paper demonstrating that the analytic engine is indeed programmable, is considered to be the world’s first programmer.