service provider (SP)

A service provider (SP) is a company that 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, includingtelecommunications service providers (TSPs), application service providers (ASPs), storage service providers (SSPs), andInternet service providers (ISPs).^{[citation needed]}

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]