SharePoint 2013 service applications and their responsibilities

Hi Mates,

Although Microsoft provides enough information about the service applications from their configuration to their usage but still it will take time to summarize the functionalities of each service application. 

Below table will give you a generic idea about the service application and its usage. I have compiled this list from Microsoft itself. 

Tip: If you cannot copy the below table. Use the below file link to view or download from Google Drive.

File: SharePoint 2013 Service Applications and their responsibilities

Service Application	Usage [MSFT]
Access Services 2010 Web Service Application	Access Services 2010 is a service application that allows users to modify and publish in SharePoint Server 2013 an Access web database that was previously created in SharePoint Server 2010.
App Management Service Application	The App Management Service is responsible for storing and providing information concerning SP App licenses and permissions. All licenses for apps downloaded from Marketplace will be stored in Apps service application. The App Management Service is accessed each time app is requested or used in SharePoint to verify validity of the request.
Application Discovery and Load Balancer Service Application	The Application Discovery and Load Balancer service provides information about the topology of the farm to users who are using services offered by the farm. Users can use this information to perform load balancing. The Application Discovery and Load Balancer Service should be running on at least one server in the farm.
Business Data Connectivity Service Application	SharePoint Business Connectivity Services brings external data into SharePoint and Office through the cloud and on-premises configurations.
Excel Services Application Web Service Application	Excel Services is a service application that enables you to load, calculate, and display Microsoft Excel workbooks on Microsoft SharePoint 2013. Excel Services was first introduced in Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.
SQL Server Reporting Services Service Application	Provides reporting services for SQL SharePoint mode installations.
Machine Translation Service	Machine translation will allow users to send content to Microsoft for translation. Microsoft may use content users send us to improve the quality of translations. If you use the Machine Translation Service in your application, you are responsible for informing users that this application will allow users to send content to Microsoft for translation and that Microsoft may use content users send us to improve the quality of translations.
Managed Metadata Service	The managed metadata service application makes it possible to use managed metadata and share content types across site collections and web applications.
PerformancePoint Service Application	PerformancePoint Services in SharePoint Server 2013 is a performance management service that you can use to monitor and analyze your business. By providing flexible, easy-to-use tools for building dashboards, scorecards, and key performance indicators (KPIs), PerformancePoint Services can help individuals across an organization make informed business decisions that align with companywide objectives and strategy.
Search Service Application	Provides search facility across the farm. Search includes document, people, conversation or any content search.
Secure Store Service Application	The Secure Store Service replaces the Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Single Sign On feature. Secure Store Service is a shared service that provides storage and mapping of credentials such as account names and passwords. It enables you to securely store data that provides credentials required for connecting to external systems and associating those credentials to a specific identity or group of identities. It is very common for solutions to try to authenticate to an external system in which the current user is known differently or has a different account for authentication. In such cases, Secure Store Service can be used to store and map user credentials required by the external system. You can configure Secure Store Service so that multiple users can access an external system by using a single set of credentials on that external system.
Security Token Service Application	An STS is a specialized Web service that is designed to respond to requests for security tokens and provide identity management. The core functionality of every STS is the same, but the nature of the tasks that each STS performs depends on the role the STS plays in relation to the other STS Web services in your design.
State Service	The State Service is a shared service that is used by some Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 components to store temporary data across related HTTP requests in a SQL Server database.
User Profile Service Application	It fetches user profiles from AD an import into SharePoint. Integrate user profiles with a site called mysite which is unique for each user and personal too.
Visio Graphics Service Application	The Visio Graphics Service is a SharePoint Server 2013 service application that allows users to share and view Visio diagrams by using Visio Services. The service application also enables data-connected Visio 2013 diagrams to be refreshed and updated from different data sources.
Word Automation Services	Word Automation Services provides unattended, server-side conversion of documents into formats that are supported by the Microsoft Word client application.
Work Management Service Application	The Work Management Service Application provides functionality to aggregate tasks to a central location on SharePoint Server: Users get the possibility to view and track their to-dos and tasks. Tasks can be cached to a user' s personal site. Tasks can sync to Outlook where users can edit them wherever they have access to Outlook. Tasks can be aggregated from Exchange, Project Server and SharePoint. Based on 'Provider model' so that other systems can be integrated in the future.
Workflow Service Application	A new option exists when you build a workflow for SharePoint Server 2013. This option is called Platform Type. The figure shows the Platform Type option when you are creating a new workflow by using SharePoint Designer 2013.