Humanity has been manipulating, storing, and communicating information since the early Sumerians pioneered the written word in ancient Mesopotamia, circa 3000 BC. The term IT did not appear until the mid-20th century however when an influx of early office technology appeared. The term was first published in the 1958 Harvard Business Review when authors Harold J. Leavitt and Thomas C. Whisler said “the new technology does not yet have a single established name. We shall call it Information Technology.”

In a modern context, the term ‘IT’ is commonly used to describe computers and networks within a business environment. It refers to their applications in: generating, manipulating, storing, regaining, transmitting, handling, exchanging, studying and securing all data or information in an electronic format. IT is also used as an umbrella term to cover: television, telecommunication equipment, software, e-commerce and the internet.