More open UDDI Web services directory standard ratified by OASIS -- ADTmag

More open UDDI Web services directory standard ratified by OASIS

By ADT Staff
February 3, 2005

A new version of Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI), the often forgotten XML-based standard for Web services, won approval from OASIS, the Boston-based standard consortium, according to an announcement today.

The new standard, which is designed to solve some of the interoperability issues that plagued earlier versions, has the backing of OASIS members including IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP and Computer Associates.

Moving away from proprietary technologies to improve interoperable communications is one of the main enhancements of the new release. The new version, officially designated as UDDI v3.0.2, provides an open standard for interoperable communication. This includes 'the ability to affiliate registries in keeping with SOA's emphasis on supporting a variety of infrastructural variations and providing a means to define relationships among a variety of UDDI registries,' according to the OASIS announcement. 'Although from its inception, the specification included concepts such as delegation and distribution among server peers, earlier UDDI definitions relied upon proprietary means of interaction. By contrast, UDDI v3.0.2 provides an open, standardized approach to ensure widely interoperable communication.'

'One of the most significant enhancements of UDDI v3.0.2 is that it allows well-known identifiers for service descriptions to be created, facilitating reuse of service descriptions among registries,' according to Tony Rogers of Computer Associates, co-chair of the OASIS UDDI Specification Technical Committee. 'This makes it much easier for developers and architects to communicate.'

Positioned as one of the 'central elements of an interoperable framework that ensures the effective interaction of services in a service oriented architecture,' Frank Kenney, analyst at Gartner, extolled the business potential of the new UDDI release. 'By enabling policy-based distribution and management of enterprise Web services, a UDDI registry can deliver significant business value,' the analyst said in a statement. 'It can help ensure that the convenience of developers, the requirements of enterprise architects, and the underlying business policies are not in opposition; in fact, it brings all of these needs into closer alignment by increasing software flexibility, reuse, centralization and control; allowing enforcement and ultimately governance.'

IBM announced it will support the new version in its J2EE WebSphere Application Server. Big Blue continues to believe the directory services provided by UDDI will be helpful in the discovery of Web services within an IT infrastructure, according to Karla Norsworthy, vice president of software standards for IBM.

The next version of SAP NetWeaver, the open integration and application platform for mySAP Business Suite and SAP xApp composite applications, will support UDDI V3, according to a spokesperson for the German software vendor.

Related links:

OASIS UDDI Specification Technical Committee: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/uddi-spec

OASIS UDDI Member Section: http://www.uddi.org/

UDDI FAQ: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/uddi-spec/faq.php

Cover Pages Technology Report: UDDI http://xml.coverpages.org/uddi.html