A service provider (SP) is an organization that provides services, such as consulting, legal, real estate, communications, storage, and processing services, to other organizations. Although a service provider can be a sub-unit of the organization that it serves, it is usually a third-party or
outsourced supplier. Examples include
telecommunications service providers (TSPs),
application service providers (ASPs),
storage service providers (SSPs), and internet service providers (ISPs). A more traditional term is
service bureau
A service bureau is a company that provides business services for a fee. The term has been extensively used to describe technology-based services to financial services companies, particularly banks. Service bureaus are a significant sector within t ...
.
IT professionals sometimes differentiate between service providers by categorizing them as type I, II, or III. The three service types are recognized by the IT industry although specifically defined by
ITIL
The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a set of detailed practices for IT activities such as IT service management (ITSM) and IT asset management (ITAM) that focus on aligning IT services with the needs of business.
ITIL de ...
and the U.S.
Telecommunications Act of 1996
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is a United States federal law enacted by the 104th United States Congress on January 3, 1996, and signed into law on February 8, 1996, by President Bill Clinton. It primarily amended Chapter 5 of Title 47 of ...
.
*Type I: internal service provider
*Type II: shared service provider
*Type III: external service provider
Type III SPs provide IT services to external customers and subsequently can be referred to as external service providers (ESPs) which range from a full IT organization/service outsource via
managed services or MSPs (managed service providers) to limited product feature delivery via ASPs (
application service providers).
Types
*
Application service provider (ASP)
*
Cloud service provider
Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage (cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over multi ...
(CSP) - Software, platform, infrastructure service provider in
cloud computing
Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage ( cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over mu ...
*
Network service provider
Network Service Provider (NSP) is one of the roles defined in the National Information Infrastructure (NII) plan, which governed the transition of the Internet from US federal control to private-sector governance, with an accompanying shift from th ...
(NSP)
*
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise priva ...
(ISP)
*
Managed service provider (MSP)
*Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP)
*
Storage service provider (SSP)
*
Telecommunications service provider (TSP)
*
SAML service provider
*Master managed service provider (MMSP)
*Managed Internet service provider (MISP)
*
Online service provider (OSP)
*
Payment service provider
A payment service provider (PSP) is a third-party company that assists businesses to accept electronic payments, such as credit cards and debit cards payments. PSPs act as intermediaries between those who make payments, i.e. consumers, and those ...
(PSP)
*Cleaning service provider
*Gardening service provider
*Pest control service provider
*Oilfield service provider
*Application software service provider in a
service-oriented architecture
In software engineering, service-oriented architecture (SOA) is an architectural style that focuses on discrete services instead of a monolithic design. By consequence, it is also applied in the field of software design where services are provid ...
(ASSP)
*Cable television service provider
See also
*
IP address
An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...
*
Service bureau
A service bureau is a company that provides business services for a fee. The term has been extensively used to describe technology-based services to financial services companies, particularly banks. Service bureaus are a significant sector within t ...
*
Service system
*
Web service
*
Identity management
*
SAML 2.0
Security Assertion Markup Language 2.0 (SAML 2.0) is a version of the SAML standard for exchanging authentication and authorization identities between security domains. SAML 2.0 is an XML-based protocol that uses security tokens co ...
*
Identity provider
An identity provider (abbreviated IdP or IDP) is a system entity that creates, maintains, and manages identity information for principals and also provides authentication services to relying applications within a federation or distributed network. ...
*
Connectivity Integrator
Connectivity may refer to:
Computing and technology
* Connectivity (media), the ability of the social media to accumulate economic capital from the users connections and activities
* Internet connectivity, the means by which individual terminals, ...
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
*
IT service management
Business models
Business terms
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