What are services?

A service is a work that is performed by one person or group of people to benefit others. We state that the services are the solution, technique, or tool of our problems. For example, customer service is a department within a company that helps the customer by solving their issues, which in general are company-related questions. In terms of computers, there are lots of software which give a lot of information. In a computer system, service is in the form of software that performs an automated task, accepts data requests sent from other software and responds to hardware events. These services are loaded automatically in the user's operating system and run in the background without any interaction with the user. For example, Microsoft Windows provides many services that are loaded to accomplish different functions. They optimize the file system, communicate with different devices on the local network.

Google services include Gmail, Google Calendar, Dropbox, Google chat, Google cloud search, Google meet, Google docs editors, etc. These are some common services used in our daily life. These services are easily available on the Google play store.

There are many services available in our daily lives. These services are-

Information Services

An information service is a service that serves or provides information, data, and knowledge to the user, customer, or client. The definition of information system or service states that-

An information system or service is a combination of information technology and people‘s activities to support operations, management, strategy, and decision-making.

Information systems include many services such as Transaction Process Systems (TPS), office automation, Enterprise Collaboration Systems (ECS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Expert Systems, Global Information Systems (GIS), Management Information Systems (MIS), Decision Support Systems (DSS), Data Warehouses (DW), Executive Support Systems (ESS).

Health-care Services

Health-care means improvement or maintenance of health by using preventions, advice, treatment, etc. Health care services can be used to maintain and access our medical records. Healthcare service consists of healthcare professionals, doctors, organizations, healthcare workers and Medicaid. These services serve patients, families, communities and people. For example, psychiatrists provide psychological treatment and prescribe medications that are related to the patient's mental health and do procedures such as electroconvulsive therapy, complementary therapy, etc. The psychiatrist provides urgent care for a sudden mental illness which helps patients to manage a long-term mental health condition.

Covid-19 pandemic is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019. This disease is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus2 (SARS-Cov-2) that was first identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. This is the main source of coronavirus. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Indian government is providing online services or applications such as Arogya Setu, IndiaFightsCorona Covid-19. Through these apps, Covid related details can be accessed at any time.

Internet Services

Internet services are those services which can be accessed using the internet. These services provide us huge amount of information, knowledge and data. There are various internet services available, for example, world wide web(www), newsgroups, electronic mail, electronic communication, FTP, etc. Internet services are provided by Internet Service Providers (ISP) such as Verizon Internet, RCN Internet, Cox Internet, Mediacom Internet, HughesNet Internet and so forth.

Some of the common internet services are:

Communication Service- Communication services are a collection of services that allow individuals and groups to exchange information. For example, an electronic mail is used to send an electronic message over the internet. Telnet is used to log on to a remote computer that is connected to the internet. Internet messaging is a platform where users or individuals can chat in real-time.

Information Retrieval Service- This service enables quick access to information via the internet. FTP (File Transfer Protocol), Archie, Gopher, and Very Easy Rodent Oriented Netwide Index to Computer Achieved (VERONICA) are all included in this service. FTP is used to transfer files between one user to another user. Archie is an updated database of public FTP sites and their contents are used to search files by their names. Gopher helps to search, retrieve, and display documents on remote sites, and VERONICA is a gopher based resource allowing access to the information resource stored on gopher’s servers.

Web Services- Web service enables one application to provide service to another application through well-defined interface written using Web Services Description Language. The application sends a SOAP request (Service Oriented Access Protocol) to the web service and the web service application sends the SOAP response. RESTful API is another technology used in the implementation of web services.

World Wide Web- The World Wide Web, sometimes known as a Web, is a collection of websites or web pages maintained on web servers and accessible via the internet by local computers. Text pages, digital photos, audio, and videos, among other things, can be found on these websites. Users can access the content of these sites through the internet utilizing devices such as computers, laptops, and cell phones from anywhere on the globe. The WWW, in conjunction with the internet, allows you to retrieve and display text and media on your device.

Cloud computing related services

The wide ranges of services provided by cloud computing organizations are:-

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)- It provides Infrastructure or raw computing resources to an organization. such as data storage capacity, networking and power in the reference of secure data center.
• Platform as a Service (PaaS)- PaaS provides computing and storage infrastructure as well as provides platform layer. The platform layer consist of components such as, database management servers, web-server and software development kit for different programming languages.
• Software as a Service (SaaS)-SaaS provides application level services to their users. Few example of this are-CRM(Customer relationship management), Business analytics and marketing automation.

Common Mistakes

Most people consider that all API are web services. But this is not true. An application programming interface (API) is a software application that allows talking to each other. It can build the functionality of another application. We use many API in our daily life like Facebook, which is used to send messages, watch videos. And in another way, a web service is a network-based service. It performs specific tasks and operations. All web services are API but not all APIs provides web services.

Concepts and Applications

This topic is significant in the professional exam for a graduate course, especially for-

• Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science
• Bachelor of Technology in Information Technology

Related Topics

There are many topics related to services-

• Business service
• Distribution service
• Construction and related engineering service
• Financial service

Practice Problems

Q1) Which service is a part of Google-

1. Chrome
2. Firefox
3. Safari
4. All

Correct answer- 1. Chrome

Explanation: Chrome is the browser part of Google. whereas Firefox is from Mozilla and safari is from apple.

Q2) Psychiatrist offers which types of service-

1. Electroconvulsive Therapy
2. Mental treatment
3. Complementary therapy
4. All

Correct answer- 4. All medication provided by the psychiatrist.

Explanation: All of the given services is offered by psychiatrist.

Q3) which of the following is not included in internet services?

1. Communication services
2. Information retrieval service
3. Web service
4. Video conferencing

Correct answer- 4.Video conferencing

Explanation: The common internet services are: Communication services, Information retrieval service, web service and world wide web. Video conferencing is not a type of internet service

Q4) Social service states that-

1. It provides services intended to aid wronged, distressed, or vulnerable people or groups.
2. It provides services intended to business organization
3. Both are right
4. Both are wrong

Correct answer- 1. It provided services intended to aid wronged, distressed, or vulnerable persons or groups.

Explanation: Social service is not intended to any particular organization or person. It is in intended to aid wrong distressed person or group.

Q5) VERONICA is an example of which type of service?

1. Communication services
2. Information retrieval service
3. Web service
4. Video conferencing

Correct answer- 2. Information retrieval service

Explanation: VERONICA is a gopher based resource that provides access to data stored in server. so it is an example of information retrieval service