Introduction to IT

In today’s world, almost every aspect of a business relies on technology, making IT organizations a crucial part of any company. But what exactly do these organizations do, and how do they manage the complexities and details of all the systems they create and manage?

This is where this Tech Job Terms website comes in.

Our mission is to help non-technical readers develop a practical understanding of IT and provide an easy-to-use and complete IT reference information platform.

Our site is intended to help a wide range of users, from anyone interested in developing a high-level IT understanding to Business Professionals who frequently interact with IT Professionals as part of technology projects.

Our approach, structure, and content are such that anyone who would like to have a general knowledge of IT activities and terminology can benefit from this site!

To cover IT topics on this site, we break things down in multiple different ways, as follows:

This breakdown and coverage of IT information enables you to “see the forest from the trees” and easily zoom in on the type of information you are looking for at all times.

Any topic mentioned in a Job Profile has a corresponding item in the IT Dictionary with further details. As there are so many of them, we keep those concise and focused on their essence. We prefer going broad with content rather than deep on each one.

So, when you need to understand what a Scrum Master does or what an API is used for, you can quickly and easily find it and review the essentials about each item. You can also see all closely related items on the Tag Group pages they are linked to.

Of course, we also provide powerful search and filter functions to locate any information quickly.

The above-described split across intuitive aspects of an IT organization and the terminology that IT Pros use is the first key way of breaking down IT information.

Within the Job Profiles and the IT Dictionary sections, we then use another consistent breakdown:  

Combined, we call them “Function Layers” as both functions and their layers serve to organize topics.

This approach is essential for understanding how IT organizations work and where particular topics fit.

So, we are now ready to introduce the core IT Functions, and they include:

These can be considered the “major functions” of an IT organization, and we use them in the Job Profiles and IT Dictionary sections.

Now, even if an IT organization uses different names for these functions or divides them up differently, the functions should be there!

Let’s review these in a “story sequence” to help you understand why we identify them as the core IT functions and how they relate.

First, a company needs an IT management team that organizes the IT functionality. This group then analyzes, designs, and creates IT solutions for the business.

Before turning them on and starting to use the IT system as a “live” production platform, IT management needs to ensure that the security works well and that only the correct people can access and work in it.

With that in place, the company now has a live Business Solution that supports the users, provides the correct functionality, and stores all the business data.

This Business solution was deployed by IT management on specific computer platforms, with servers, operating systems, and storage to make it all work. This is called “Infrastructure”.

That Infrastructure has to be located somewhere, and that is where “Facilities” play a role. Historically, companies have data centers where they house their equipment or use a service to do it for them.

Last but not least, IT management must ensure that everything works well and has proper technical support. So, there are teams to assist users, fix system issues, and monitor security to keep everything working as expected!

So, there you have it:

A complete “Intro to IT” with a breakdown into seven core Functions.

Please navigate to their designated pages for more details about these core IT Functions and their Layers!