Technology Services Directory: Purpose and Scope

The networkingauthority.com technology services directory catalogs and classifies networking and infrastructure service providers, standards, and reference material for organizations evaluating, procuring, or benchmarking technology services in the United States. This page defines what qualifies for inclusion, how listings are reviewed, what the directory explicitly excludes, and how directory content connects to the broader reference architecture on this site. Understanding these scope boundaries prevents misuse of the directory as a procurement shortlist or regulatory compliance instrument.

Standards for inclusion

Listings and reference entries within this directory meet a defined threshold across 4 criteria before publication: service category alignment, geographic operational scope, verifiable public identity, and classification against a recognized framework.

Service category alignment requires that a listed entity or service type map to at least one of the major networking service categories recognized by standards bodies such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) or documented in frameworks published by NIST. These categories include — but are not limited to — managed network services, SD-WAN services, network security services, cloud networking services, and network-as-a-service models.

Geographic operational scope requires that the listed provider or service type demonstrably operates, is licensed where applicable, or maintains documented service availability within the contiguous United States. Offshore-only entities with no US service footprint are excluded.

Verifiable public identity requires a traceable legal business name, not a trade alias without a corresponding registered entity. This aligns with the Federal Trade Commission's guidance on business identification in commercial contexts (FTC, 16 CFR Part 255).

Framework classification requires that the service type be classifiable under at least one of the following structured taxonomies:

1. OSI model layer of primary operation (Layers 1–7, as defined by ISO/IEC 7498-1)
2. Deployment model: on-premises, cloud-hosted, hybrid, or co-located
3. Service delivery model: managed, professional services, self-service, or NaaS
4. End-market served: enterprise, SMB, government, healthcare, or education

Entries that cannot be classified under any of the 4 criteria above are held for review rather than published.

How the directory is maintained

Directory maintenance follows a structured review cycle rather than continuous open submission. The review process operates in 3 discrete phases.

Phase 1 — Taxonomy audit: Service categories are reviewed against current IETF RFCs, NIST Special Publications (particularly the SP 800 series for security-adjacent services), and the IEEE standards portfolio. If a category's technical definition has changed materially in a published standard, corresponding directory entries are flagged for reclassification.

Phase 2 — Listing verification: Individual entries are cross-checked against public business registries and, where applicable, FCC licensing databases for providers operating under Title II or Title I classifications. Entries with unresolvable identity conflicts are removed rather than corrected speculatively.

Phase 3 — Scope boundary reassessment: The list of excluded categories (see below) is reviewed to determine whether emerging service types — such as those arising from network virtualization or IoT networking — require new inclusion criteria or new exclusion rationale.

This phased model produces a directory that reflects documented service categories rather than market trends. The network services industry standards reference page provides the underlying standards documentation that informs each taxonomy audit.

What the directory does not cover

The directory scope has 5 explicit exclusions:

1. Point products without a service wrapper — hardware SKUs, software licenses, or appliances sold without an accompanying managed or professional service component are outside scope. A router is not a networking service; a managed router deployment may be.
2. Financial or investment entities — private equity firms, venture portfolios, or financial instruments tied to networking sector companies are excluded regardless of industry classification.
3. Regulatory compliance determination — the directory does not assess whether any listed provider meets obligations under HIPAA, FedRAMP, CMMC, or state-level data protection statutes. The network compliance and regulatory requirements reference page addresses the regulatory landscape as a separate knowledge domain.
4. Consumer-grade services — residential broadband, consumer Wi-Fi products, and retail mobile data plans fall outside the B2B and institutional scope of this directory.
5. International-only providers — providers with no documented US service presence are excluded, even if their technology is widely referenced in US procurement literature.

The contrast between managed services and point products (exclusion 1 above) is the most frequently encountered boundary question. A managed detection and response provider offering network managed detection and response is within scope; a firewall appliance vendor with no service layer is not.

Relationship to other network resources

The directory functions as a structured navigation layer, not a self-contained knowledge base. Three relationships define how it connects to other content on this site.

Reference documentation: Service categories listed in the directory link directly to explanatory reference pages. For example, a directory entry classified under WAN services connects to the WAN services reference, and an entry under LAN topology connects to LAN services reference. This pairing ensures that directory users can move from a category label to a technical definition without leaving the reference architecture.

Decision support content: For organizations comparing service models — for instance, contrasting enterprise networking services against small business networking services — the directory provides the categorical starting point, while decision-support pages handle comparative analysis and provider selection criteria.

Glossary and standards cross-reference: Terms used in directory classifications are defined in the network services glossary, which itself cites the ISO, IEEE, and IETF source documents that govern terminology. This chain — directory entry → reference page → glossary → standards document — is intentional and preserves traceability from a practical service category back to its normative definition.