IT Industry Primer

Name: IT Industry Primer
Rating: 4.3 (25 reviews)

IT Fundamentals : accelerate your career in IT.

Created bySimon Fowler

Last updated 2/2021

English

What you'll learn

Discover how the IT industry is a dynamic and exciting place to be.
Gain perspectives to help your career.
Understand the "why" of IT, as well as "what" it is.
Get to know the IT Industry vendor landscape.

Course content

1 section • 9 lectures • 1h 11m total length

Introduction3:06
The IT Industry is a great place to work. I have been in and around this industry most of my working life in a variety of roles from technical support through to sales and marketing and I am so looking forward to sharing some of my experiences. Get a quick preview of what's covered in this course and find out what's in it for you. I joined the industry at a great time, and to be honest, it keeps evolving so fast, now is arguably an even better time to join.
Information Technology - the "why"5:31
The "What" of IT includes people, processes and technology and we'll be covering all of these in this course. However, before diving in, it's a great time to consider the "Why" of IT. What's it for? What is the ultimate purpose? Is it just a cost burden on the business or could it be a positive enabler for the business?
IT - The Why
Meet Dave the IT Guy3:46
Most of us know an IT Guy. So this is a great starting point for our tour of the IT Industry.
Dave the IT Guy
IT - a game with many pieces6:59
In this lesson, we'll discover the breadth and scope of the IT Industry which, according to some analysts is worth around $3 Trillion annually. To work in the IT Industry, you should not limit your aspirations to becoming an IT Guy (though this can be very fulfilling and worthwhile). There is so much more opportunity and diversity of roles. The aim here is to open your eyes.
A game with many pieces
A brief history of IT7:15
IT offers a fast paced and highly innovative environment with a constant stream of new buzzwords and concepts, so why should we bother with looking into the past? The answer is context. Whilst new things are always exciting, they always come from somewhere. When you look at IT through the lens of its history, you'll discover that not all new things are actually that new. Some trends are cyclical and maybe its just the naming which changes. In this lesson, we use the example of computing and whether it is centralised or de-centralised.
Brief history of IT
IT Vendors Part 1 - Desktops to Servers11:14
IT Vendors are arguably the engine of innovation in IT. These are the organisations which design and deliver the software and hardware which runs IT. In recent years, we also need to consider a new breed of IT Vendor - the Cloud service providers. In Part 1, we focus our attention on the seen and unseen worlds of IT. The world of client devices and the world of datacentres, and specifically the servers which reside there and run all the software applications.
IT Vendors Part 1
IT Vendors Part 2 - Storage, Networking and Software12:54
In IT Vendors Part 2, we continue our tour and take a look at three more major sectors: data storage, networking and software.
Storage, Networking and Software
Server market share3:26
In this lesson, we'll take a look at a snapshot of the server market based on a publicly posted quarterly update from IDC, one of the leading IT Analyst organisations (IDC - International Data Corporation).
Server market share
IT Consumers - Overview of an IT organisation17:32
Ultimately, the entire IT Industry is serving the needs of businesses around the globe. Each of these will have an IT organisation in place and in each organisation will be people with specific roles and agendas. In this lesson, we take a look at a typical IT organisation, discover some of those key roles and in so doing, throw some light on potential career directions.
IT Organisation

Requirements

No experience necessary. Ideal for anyone new to IT.
Ambition
Curiosity

Description

This course is a FREE primer overview of the IT Industry. It is a great stepping stone to the course "IT Fundamentals: All About Data".

Interested in working in the IT Industry and want to understand the IT fundamentals first - then this course is for you. Presented by Simon Fowler, creator of the 2DeCipher YouTube channel and with 25 years working in the IT Industry in a variety of roles from technical through to sales and marketing. The IT Industry is probably broader than you think and a great place to work.

The 2DeCipher tag-line is "technology made simple". Here are some comments from viewers of my content.

"This is by far the most clear explanation I have been provided with ever. Thank you!"
"This is one of the best videos explaining hyperconvergence!"
"Wow, so clarifying. Thanks a lot."
"Damn well explained! Awesome!"

In this course, my aim is to demystify an industry which is full of jargon and which can be hard to make sense of. The content will suit technical and non-technical learners with concepts explained in straightforward language.

Once you have the fundamentals of IT understood, this is an industry which can support your most ambitious aspirations. Potential roles include: IT Support, Software Development, Solution Architect, IT Manager, Project Manager, Product Manager and many more. As you will discover, the industry encompasses the whole value chain from designers and sellers of IT solutions (software and hardware), through resellers and distributors, and of course the IT organisations which manage IT on behalf of all the businesses around the world.

Who this course is for:

Students with an interest in working within the IT industry and who want to know more about it.
Professionals already working within IT, whether using or managing it or selling and marketing it, who wish to understand it more broadly.
Business leaders who know what IT does for their operations today but would like to leverage it to power business transformation.
This is great prework for the course IT Fundamentals: All About Data