Unit 23 Reading Activities Plus Questions

Top 15 American IT Companies

For some reason, most of the large IT companies in the world are American. For instance Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, etc. As an IT professional, you are expected to know about big IT corporations, revenue, profits, budgets, and other economic matters.

Why?

Because these things affect your capacity to perform your tasks. The economy tends to go in cycles. In an up cycle, you will get resources to build or improve systems. In a cycle you will be pressured to cut spending and possibly even lay off staff. This is business as usual" and nothing to get excited about. Over the span of your career you will experience many up and down economic cycles.

Studying what the big IT companies do right and wrong will help you think of ideas how to improve your own IT department. No matter if you work for a small company, non-profit organization, or a government institution, you will learn quickly that most decisions are based on money. The best way to implement your "great idea" is to argue that it will save time or increase profits. Trying to argue a point without keeping efficiency, profits and budgets in mind will be difficult.

Below is a chart of 15 American IT companies I think are important to know about. The more you know about the business of IT, the better IT professional you will become.