Service provider
A service provider (SP) provides organizations with consulting, legal, real estate, education, communications, storage, processing, and many other services. Although the term service provider can refer to organizational sub-units, it is more generally used to refer to third party or outsourced suppliers, including telecommunications service providers (TSPs), application service providers (ASPs), storage service providers (SSPs), and Internet service providers (ISPs). A more traditional term is service bureau (esp. 1960s to 1980s).
IT professionals sometimes differentiate between service providers by categorizing them as type I, II, or III.[1] The three service types are recognized by the IT industry although specifically defined by ITIL and the US Telecommunications Act of 1996
- 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)[2] 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).[3]
Types of service providers
- Application service provider (ASP)
- Network service provider (NSP)
- Internet service provider (ISP)
- Managed service provider (MSP)
- Storage service provider (SSP)
- Telecommunications service provider (TSP)
- SAML service provider
- Master managed service provider (MMSP)
- Managed Internet service provider (MISP)
- Online service provider
- Payment service provider (PSP)
- Software, platform, infrastructur service provoider in cloud computing
- Application software service provider in a service-oriented architecture
See also
References
- ↑ Stuart Rance and Ashley Hanna (30 May 2007). "Glossary of Terms, Definitions and Acronyms" (PDF). ITIL - IT Service Management. Office of Government Commerce. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
- ↑ Staff (2011). "External Service Provider (ITILv3)". Knowledge Transfer. Knowledge Transfer. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
- ↑ Barry J. (23 January 2012). "IT Policies - Policy on Use of External Services". The University of Chicago. The University of Chicago. Retrieved 3 June 2012.
Further reading
- Hall, Mark (7 February 2000). "Service Providers Give Users More IT Options". Computerworld: 40.
- "Mapping the xSP world". CIO: S8–S10. 15 September 2001.