The role of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) industry has certainly changed in the recent past. As recently as ten years ago ICT was seen as more of an efficiency mechanism rather than a critical service. But times have changed and technology has evolved. Today ICT has adopted a much more serious role in business and society. In many cases it is considered mission critical infrastructure and in many other cases it is considered critical to the delivery of services or the success of a business.
But what exactly is this industry providing that makes it so critical to just about every business in the world? The key is in the definition, Information Technology refers to an industry that processes, stores and transmits digital communication. Every technology that handles digital communications is considered part of the industry. And if you consider that digital information includes military data, financial data, business intellectual property, health records, justice records, critical infrastructure data, educational records and even social blogs then you begin to realize just how deeply embedded the industry is within every aspect of society.
And its particular role as the custodian of these digital records extends beyond storage and delivery of information. Today information is expected on mobile platforms, it is expected to be secure and available between platforms. We even expect information masses of data to be processed and delivered to us as information. Meteorology, the study of weather for example, takes data samples from hundreds if not thousands of points and presents them as information.
Another important role of ICT is the coordination of people. The rich variety of communication platforms has given us the agility to coordinate people from a remote location. There is no question that the military has embraced this particular role in technology, but there are countless numbers of other examples ranging from small business to large corporations all using technology to coordinate people to achieve various goals.
And the upshot of all this information is that we now have the ability to make educated and timely decisions based on current information. One prevalent example of this is the number of people comparing home loans or insurance online. But once again, this ability extends to almost every industry in the world. Not just the home loan or insurance industries.
But the final irony is that as the role of ICT continues to become more important in all warps of society, so does the vulnerability that this reliance presents. In other words, the more we rely on it the more we are susceptible the consequences of its failure.
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