What is IT?
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This may be a dumb question, but what exactly is IT?
@scottalanmiller wrote the other day that Silicon Valley doesn't have a lot of IT jobs, but it has lots of tech jobs. And @ajstringham blogged that you shouldn't do a computer science degree if you want a career in IT, as computer science is more development and programming.
And it occurred to me that I don't actually know what IT is? This despite the fact that my job title is often given as IT Manager, so maybe I should know. When asked, I generally tell people I'm a computer programmer, even though I don't do much programming any more.
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This is one that I was planning on addressing in an article soon. It really is a tough question and is extremely hard to define.
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Yeah, I saw Scott's comments the other day and was confused by that as well. I have always considered IT to encompass all of those things (programming, network design, administration, etc)
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I honestly believe that IT is a horrible name for the field. I think that it should be called something like "Business Infrastructure." One easy way to think of it, though, is that it is the department under a CIO whereas software development would be under a CTO.
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@Dashrender said:
Yeah, I saw Scott's comments the other day and was confused by that as well. I have always considered IT to encompass all of those things (programming, network design, administration, etc)
Programming is quite different that those other things.
Programmers make products, IT operates infrastructure - provides services.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
Yeah, I saw Scott's comments the other day and was confused by that as well. I have always considered IT to encompass all of those things (programming, network design, administration, etc)
Programming is quite different that those other things.
Programmers make products, IT operates infrastructure.
Understood, but it's all Information Technology.
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IT / Infrastructure : Is the field of business infrastructure. The information and communication equivalent to a facilities department. Just like facilities operates a facility but does not build it, IT operates infrastructure but does not build it (programming.)
"Every" business needs IT. Maybe not full time, but to some degree. Even a one man company needs computers, storage, backup, software, etc. Even if just one computer and only for one spreadsheet. But very few companies, comparatively, build their own infrastructure components and that is both the software engineering and hardware engineering roles. Software engineering is common enough that maybe 10-20% of businesses build their own software. But hardware engineering is far rarer with only .01% or so - it being such a big deal that companies that do that like Google and Facebook make big news for doing so.
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@Dashrender said:
Understood, but it's all Information Technology.
Not as a field, no. Programmers don't consider themselves IT. It's a different discipline. One operates, one builds. Think about other engineering fields.
End users are like drivers.
IT is like auto mechanics.
Software Engineering is like automotive engineering.
One builds the products that another operates that another oversees. If you lump software engineering with IT, you break the barriers and make end users part of IT too. Suddenly anyone and everyone is IT just because they have a computer, which is not the case.
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Programming and IT are actually very different fields. It's not just a subtle differentiation. To IT, programmers are end users. To programmers, IT are customers.
That's why Microsoft, for example, is a software company, not an IT company. Software departments make "products." IT produces services, not products. IT is a service organization, software is a product organization.
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IT is the management and deployment of technology in the workplace. So as you said, programming is more development, which isn't IT. Programmers would write the software, IT would be the ones to install, manage, and configure that software.
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So what's the difference between a programmer and a scripter? I spend all day writing scripts (or code), but I don't develop products. Am I not a programmer? The Solaris guys I used to work with were all ace scripters - some of their code was pretty complex, but it was all Systems Admin related, not program related. And Microsoft is moving more towards the UNIX route by putting more and more emphasis on Powershell, and less on GUIs.
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The products versus services differentiation is a huge piece of it. Unitrends is not an IT firm just because they have hardware in addition to their software. They still make "products." They do both software engineering AND hardware engineering (to some degree) but they don't offer IT services (outside of some really basic deployment services for their own products.) IT services are not a product that they sell, they sell appliances and software (products.)
IT firms are like Perot Systems, EDS, Accenture, IGS - companies that sell services.
Software firms are like Adobe, Microsoft, Oracle - ones from which you buy products, tangible things. -
@Carnival-Boy said:
So what's the difference between a programmer and a scripter? I spend all day writing scripts (or code), but I don't develop products. Am I not a programmer? The Solaris guys I used to work with were all ace scripters - some of their code was pretty complex, but it was all Systems Admin related, not program related. And Microsoft is moving more towards the UNIX route by putting more and more emphasis on Powershell, and less on GUIs.
Generally, as is my understanding, programming means you compile your code, and are writing a program to do something new, either totally or a new feature. Scripting means utilizing something like Powershell, bash, shell, batch, VBscript, etc, where you are running a stand-alone item to accomplish a specific task using existing parameters and programs.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
So what's the difference between a programmer and a scripter?
You do programming as part of IT, but you use it to provide a service, you are not selling that script to others or even the business, right? You operate that script. Your purpose of writing the script is to be a part of the service, not to be a product, I would guess.
Just like any auto mechanic might fabricate their own parts, IT can write code. But there is a huge difference between IT writing some code as part of operations and designing products.
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@ajstringham said:
Generally, as is my understanding, programming means you compile your code, and are writing a program to do something new, either totally or a new feature. Scripting means utilizing something like Powershell, bash, shell, batch, VBscript, etc, where you are running a stand-alone item to accomplish a specific task using existing parameters and programs.
Programming is more broad and implies nothing like that at all. Scripting means using a scripting language, that's all. Neither has any of these implication.
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I think I'm getting more confused about IT, not less!
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I think I'm getting more confused about IT, not less!
Just think of it as...
Do you provide a service (IT, HR, Facilities, Legal, etc. all provide services.)
Or do you make product (does your company package what you make for others?)
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@Carnival-Boy said:
I think I'm getting more confused about IT, not less!
Ok, then I think we need a more specific question than "what is IT". We're giving broad answers but if we have a specific question(s), then it'll be easier.
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To me (the source on all things I say) IT is a big ole blanket that we all cuddle up under to make sure everyones stuff that turns on works, is about to work, or is replaced. IT is for sure the parent of many little technical babies.
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I started my career in technology as a developer and I can tell you that being a real developer for the first twelve years there is a very big difference between IT and development. They have tons of overlap and are obviously highly related, but when you work in both, they are very clearly two different entities.
