Compare and contrast components and purposes of Information Technology Essay

Compare and contrast components and purposes of Information Technology (IT) and Information Systems (IS) in organizations - Essay Example Web servers, codes that manage the server, storage facilities, information transfer facilities, and many others are examples of information technology which when combined forms an information system. This paper focuses on the components and purposes of information technology and information systems in an organization (Stair, 2011). Components of an information system include hardware, software, data, procedures, and people. For instance, each system needs people for its functionalities and maintenance. In most cases, people are not part of the system but they contribute to either its success or failure. Procedures are the rules and policies that guide in the operation of the information system. These procedures are implemented using information technology techniques in form of lines of code. For example, web-based systems’ procedures implemented using programming languages like PHP and other styling and scripting languages. These languages are the technologies that make up the se information systems (Stair, 2011). In addition, data as used by programs for processing to produce information used in the systems. These data is stored in disks until needed by the system. The process of storing and the tools used to store are the information technologies while the system that extracts the data from these storage devices is the information system that manipulates the data. ... Software is another example of information systems component. Computer programs and manuals supporting these programs are the software in a system. These programs give instructions to the interaction of hardware components of an information system to process data to produce useful information. In an information system, these programs are stored in a disk and installed in a way that the hardware can detect and use them. They control the interaction of hardware parts in the processing of information, for instance and operating system is software that controls the whole functionalities of the system and coordinates the hardware components for functionalities. The programs are lines of code written using a certain specific technology based on the required functionality of the system. Some technologies includes, java programming language, PHP, C#, visual basic and many other languages used to write these commands which forms a software (Reynolds, 2010). Furthermore, information system is composed of hardware that is the machineries and the computers. Hardware components include displays, keyboards, storage disks, printers, scanners, chips, and barcode readers among many others, which are the tangible parts of an information system. These hardware tools made using different technologies and when combined together they form an information system with specific functionalities. The execution of data triggered by either a program or people through hardware and processed using both the software and hardware in a system the communication between hardware and software controlled by the operating system (Mahr, 2010). Information systems have different purposes in a firm, for instance, some are for communication, data management, inventory