provider(A company that provides services or content for its customers; A software component that allows a replica to synchronize its data with other replicas; An in-process dynamic link library (DLL) that provides access to a database; In a Web Parts connection, a server control that sends data to a consumer control. A provider can be a WebPart control or any type of server control, but must be designed to function as a provider. A provider must have a special callback method marked with a ConnectionProviderAttribute attribute in the source code. This method provides data to consumer controls in the form of an interface instance); vendor(A party that supplies products to one or more legal entities in exchange for payment; A person or company providing goods or services in return for payment); issuer(blc)
OLE DB provider(A program in the OLE DB architecture that enables native access to data, instead of accessing data using ODBC or IISAM drivers, which are external ways to access the data)
Active Directory PowerShell provider(The Windows PowerShell provider that is included with the Active Directory module for Windows PowerShell. The Active Directory module provider exposes the Active Directory database through a hierarchical navigation system. Administrators can use the provider to easily navigate and access data that is stored in Active Directory domains, Active Directory Database Mounting Tool instances, and AD LDS instances and configuration sets)
LINQ provider(A library that implements the functionality of the Standard Query Operators for a specific kind of data source. The LINQ provider runs the query or passes it to some other execution engine)
WMI provider(In Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), a set of interfaces that provide programmatic access to management information in a system. IIS 7.0 implements a WMI provider in the namespace called WebAdministration to provide programmatic access to configuration and system settings)
