Key Web services protocol gets help

Next version of UDDI will feature improved security, policy controls.

A protocol described as one of the four pillars of Web services might finally be ready to live up to its grandiose billing and signal the start of the next phase of corporate adoption for the emerging technology.

The Universal Discovery, Description and Integration (UDDI) protocol has been the ugly stepchild to XML, Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and Web Services Description Language (WSDL), which have all gained favor as Web services have been tested and adopted by leading-edge corporations.

Originally billed as a public directory of Web services to find and connect to Web services components that live on a network or the Internet, UDDI has failed to meet that promise mostly because of issues related to securing data and access.

To continue reading, register here and become an Insider. You'll get free access to premium content from CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. See more Insider content or sign in.

A protocol described as one of the four pillars of Web services might finally be ready to live up to its grandiose billing and signal the start of the next phase of corporate adoption for the emerging technology.

The Universal Discovery, Description and Integration (UDDI) protocol has been the ugly stepchild to XML, Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and Web Services Description Language (WSDL), which have all gained favor as Web services have been tested and adopted by leading-edge corporations.

Originally billed as a public directory of Web services to find and connect to Web services components that live on a network or the Internet, UDDI has failed to meet that promise mostly because of issues related to securing data and access.

A public UDDI directory called UDDI Business Registry maintained by Microsoft, IBM, SAP and NTT Communications is not much more than a conceptual model.

However, with the expected release in the fall of Version 3 of the UDDI specification, which was turned over to the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) last fall, the protocol is getting the security and policy controls that might lift its acceptance among Web services adopters. Version 3 is seen as the key for creating private, semiprivate and public UDDI registries that could be integrated at various levels.

Version 3 also positions UDDI to become the linchpin for the next wave of Web services, which ties together multiple Web services into composite applications.

"Version 3 is a major advance toward being able to trust the data in the registry and know that it is valid," says Tom Bellwood, co-chair of the OASIS UDDI technical committee.

UDDI's role will be as a registry of Web services that live on the network. As multiple Web services are connected to form composite applications, such as an ordering system consisting of multiple Web services, UDDI would be the hub that holds together that association of Web services.

The concept is similar to the Domain Name Service on the Internet where Web site addresses such as www.nwfusion.com remain fixed entries in the DNS registry, while the location or IP address of the site can be changed.

The UDDI registry is a locator service that allows Web services to be linked on the fly and change locations on the network without breaking the composite application. The registry provides flexibility so application components can be "loosely coupled" and readily reused instead of hard-wired together and rigid. UDDI also can find downed Web services components and point to where a composite application is broken.

"People are still trying to learn how to use Web services correctly," says Ron Schmelzer, an analyst with research firm ZapThink. "Replacing proprietary interfaces with standard Web services interfaces in point-to-point connections is not that interesting. You have to change your environment to a service-oriented architecture, and to do that you need UDDI as a discovery component. Version 3 is the first workable version to support that role."