The Basis of ITIL

The term ‘information’ is often times used in relation to computers, especially computers in the business environment. In essence, information is structured, processed and organised information. It gives context to other data and allows efficient decision making at all levels of an organisation. For instance, a single customer’s sale in a particular restaurant is information it becomes information the business can utilise when it can identify which of the least popular or most preferred dishes are. The same applies to customer profiles, marketing strategies, product portfolios etc.

Developing information technology solutions to deliver information requires a lot of expertise. Businesses then take on the task of programming, maintaining and enhancing computer systems to deliver this information. In today’s business environment, database management software plays an important role. Databases are at the core of information technology development environment.

Database management software is a suite of products that allow systems to store, manage, query and retrieve information from a database. Database management software is used to build, maintain and upgrade information systems. Some examples of information systems are enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), human resources systems, supply chain management systems and web sites. ERP is an application that integrates all the parts of an organisation’s information technology, such as:

The application of ERP is mostly used by companies that are involved in the manufacturing, retailing and distribution of products. The major components of ERP are: – database, – application services, – CRM, – marketing systems and – information security. Information security involves designing security features into a database so that information cannot be accessed without authorization. In the context of information technology, information security involves implementing rules that ensure the security of information contained in an ERP or CRM application.

There are two major ways to achieve information security: information security at the application level and information security at the system level. Information security at the system level mainly concerns security issues in the computer-related environment of the application. Information security at the application level refers to how information is stored, shared, modified and executed.

In information technology, the terms client server, central processing unit (CPU) and client computer mean a processor that allows processing of requests from many clients. It is a microprocessor that coordinates the communication with many clients in a development environment. The term of a microprocessor is often called by its address, which is either bytes kilobytes or megabytes.