Can you explain what is meant by the term 'Vendor' in the context of IT or software development?

In IT and software development, a 'Vendor' refers to a company or organization that supplies software, hardware, or services. It can be a software manufacturer, library developer, cloud service provider, etc.

For example, if you use PostgreSQL database, the company that develops and maintains it is the vendor of that product. In dependency management in Go, the vendor folder is often used to store local copies of external libraries to ensure stability and independence from external repositories.