Information technology (IT), as defined by the Information Technology Association of

America (ITAA), is "the study, design, development, implementation, support or

management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications
and computer hardware."[1] IT deals with the use of electronic computers and computer
software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit, and securely retrieve information.

Today, the term information technology has ballooned to encompass many aspects of
computing and technology, and the term has become very recognizable. The information
technology umbrella can be quite large, covering many fields. IT professionals perform a
variety of duties that range from installing applications to designing complex computer
networks and information databases. A few of the duties that IT professionals perform
may include data management, networking, engineering computer hardware, database
and software design, as well as the management and administration of entire systems.

When computer and communications technologies are combined, the result is

information technology, or "infotech". Information technology is a general term that
describes any technology that helps to produce, manipulate, store, communicate, and/or
disseminate information. Presumably, when speaking of Information Technology (IT) as
a whole, it is noted that the use of computers and information are associated.

The term information technology is sometimes said to have been coined by Jim Domsic
of Michigan in November 1981.[citation needed] Domsic, who worked as a computer manager
for an automotive related industry, is supposed to have created the term to modernize the
outdated phrase "data processing". The Oxford English Dictionary, however, in defining
information technology as "the branch of technology concerned with the dissemination,
processing, and storage of information, esp. by means of computers" provides an
illustrative quote from the year 1958 (Leavitt & Whisler in Harvard Business Rev.
XXXVI. 41/1 "The new technology does not yet have a single established name. We
shall call it information technology.") that predates the so-far unsubstantiated Domsic
coinage.