OASIS Refreshes UDDI Standard

OASIS has approved as a standard Universal Description, Discovery and
Integration (UDDI) version 3.0.2, which helps programmers create registries
that let users locate Web services on a network.

Backed by vendors, such as IBM , Microsoft
and Computer Associates , UDDI helps
users publish and find software services in a distributed computing model,
such as a service-oriented architecture (SOA). It can help users find,
distribute and manage Web services from all over the world, making it easier
for developers and system architects to exchange information.

The standard, considered a key piece of Web services protocol along with
SOAP and WSDL , also offers methods for
controlling access to the registry and a utility for distributing records to
other registries.

OASIS said in a statement that version 3.0.2 can now help users affiliate registries to
support infrastructure variations. It also provides a method for defining
relationships among several UDDI registries. Other features include
support for digital signatures for increased security, as well as extended discovery
features that can combine multi-step queries into one query.

The latest version is also more open than previous iterations. While UDDI
has always provided a way to pipe services among different servers, the
interactions were based on proprietary technology. Version 3.0.2 is now open to
different products from different vendors, said OASIS, which also released
notes on how to use UDDI and WSBPEL together.

The standard, a follow-up to version 2.0, which was released
in May 2003, comes at a time when SOAs are growing increasingly
more complex and fraught with clashing services.

IBM will extend support for the latest version in its WebSphere Application
Server, while SAP will support the protocol in its next version of
NetWeaver. The vendors are looking to capitalize on the gold rush to
construct SOAs to help customers cut costs by reusing assets such as
software code.

While leading vendors remain among UDDI’s staunchest supporters, ZapThink
senior analyst Jason Bloomberg said there are broad concerns that the UDDI
standard alone is inadequate to support the run-time discovery requirements
of SOA.

“It’s up to vendors and consultants, therefore, to make up the slack in
their customers’ dynamic discovery requirements,” said Bloomberg.

The analyst said that UDDI is merely a standard, not a product,
noting that registry products from smaller outfits like Systinet and
Infravio offer far more functionality than what has been specified by UDDI.