SSP Replaced by Service Application

In SharePoint 2010 Shared Service Providers (SSP's) are replaced by Service Applications. Services are no longer combined into a SSP. They are running independent as a service application. The service application architecture is now also built into Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010, in contrast to the Shared Services Provider (SSP) architecture that was only part of Office SharePoint Server 2007.
A key benefit here is that all services are installed by default and there is no SSP setup.

Additional improvements for the service application model include:
• The services architecture is extensible, allowing third-party companies to build and add services to the platform.
• Services are managed directly in Central Administration (rather than a separate administration site).
• Services can be monitored and managed remotely.
• Services can be managed and scripted by Windows PowerShell™.
• Shared services communications take place over HTTP(S). Shared services do not directly access databases across farms.
• Most new services are built on the Windows Communications Framework. They have optimization built into their protocol, using binary streams instead of XML for data transfer. Test results show improvements in network throughput with this change.