Autonomic Computing

IT Industry Segment Fundamentals

While for many the IT industry is well understood for the purposes of this book, we shall roughly describe its topology. The IT industry has evolved into an exceptionally diverse series of companies, firms, and corporations, which can be simply classified into the industry's three basic segments—hardware, software, and communications.

Hardware

Hardware can be divided into three subsections.

• Hardware— Always the most visible elements of the IT industry. When many people see a box they think it's a computer. Hardware can be broken down further into subcategories of IT systems, such as mainframes, servers, workstations, and their related components, such as microprocessors and storage devices.

• Peripherals— In this ...