Although UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration) has not yet fulfilled its promise to become the public registration technology for Web services, the concept is gaining a steady foothold, a panel of uddi.org members said during a session here at the Software Development Conference and Expo on Thursday.
UDDI is designed to provide registries, either public or private, for registering and discovering Web services. Panelists from uddi.org, which is shepherding the technology, were sounded out about the progress of UDDI.
The concept is still maturing, said panelist Joel Munter, senior software engineer at Intel Corp., following comments from panel moderator Brent Sleeper, a consultant at The Stencil Group, about registries allegedly "missing in action" and scant services being available.
"There's a reluctance to populate a public registry with Web services," Munter said.
"I don't think [the lack of services registered] says [UDDI] is not successful," said panelist Suzy Struble, manager of XML industry initiatives at Sun Microsystems Inc.. Many Sun customers still are thinking about using UDDI internally first before considering utilizing public registries, she said. UDDI is well-positioned for use within firewalls, she said.
Panelist Claus Von Riegen, XML standards architect at SAP AG, which has deployed a UDDI business registry, agreed with the notion that public registry development is not the only measurement of success of UDDI. UDDI, he added, can be used for business-to-business integration, enterprise application creation, and for developing a network of business partners, he said.
In late July uddi.org plans to turn over jurisdiction of the UDDI specification to an as-yet-unnamed standards organization or consortium, Sun's Struble said.
Sun for its part will soon offer a standalone UDDI registry product, she added.
Panelists also expressed a desire for UDDI capabilities to be built into the Java development environment.
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