What is UDDI?

By Andy Gibbs
Network World Technology Executive Newsletter, 08/06/01

E-commerce may never be the same. With an exciting new technology called Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration, businesses can find and transact with partners automatically through their computers. It's a sweeping plan that may finally enable widespread business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce by providing a framework for finding and using Web-based business functionality that is already present (but probably under-used).

One of the limiting aspects of current B2B solutions has been the high cost of interfacing systems with those of trading partners. Platform-specific solutions involve plenty of time and money and have drawbacks such as platform lock-in to protect the investment. Additionally, there hasn't been an affordable, effective way to find business partners who buy (or sell) the goods and services that your company is interested in.

UDDI is similar to an online global Yellow Pages listing that facilitates Internet-based commerce between businesses. It was launched by IBM, Microsoft, and Ariba, but is now being developed by a team of technology industry heavyweights that also includes Oracle, Compaq, Sun, and Hewlett-Packard among others. UDDI provides a framework based on industry standards and is platform independent. It allows for a way of publishing essential information such as Web addresses, classification of goods and services, and the type of Web-based services each company has available.

It is geared toward solving the main problems currently keeping B2B stuck in first gear. Until the UDDI initiative, there was no way for businesses to easily discover available trading partners and the corresponding e-commerce abilities each has. Finding trading partners on a global scale is difficult, and the likelihood of having compatible Web-based services is slim.

A centralized system is needed to allow companies to publish information about themselves, the services and products they offer, and what methods their computing systems use to conduct e-commerce via the Internet. UDDI does this by implementing a public global registry that is distributed across multiple locations that replicate with each other. This ensures that the UDDI audience benefits from an encompassing, global registry of Web services provided by all participating business.

Businesses who want to participate are able to publish information to the UDDI Business Registry through working group members who act as access points to the database. Currently, businesses can register through the nodes operated by either IBM or Microsoft. There is no cost to either register your company or to search the database for potential trading partners.

To be an effective B2B-enableing solution, UDDI does more than provide listings of e-commerce enabled businesses. There is an abundance of potential trading partners with online capabilities, but finding the right ones will require some value-adding Web services to sort through all the options. With these new Web services made available by UDDI, you'll be able to build a powerfully descriptive profile of your company, its online trading abilities, and query the profiles of other companies as well.

UDDI is seen as much more than the newest little thing on the Internet, but rather a large step toward realizing the economic potential of Internet-based commerce. The current working group represents some of the biggest names in hardware, software, and marketplace operators in the technology industry. The initiative is much more likely to succeed because of the commitment from these working group members to actively implement UDDI in their own businesses.

The working group has developed a layer-like system to achieve widespread interoperability. At the bottom level, XML provides a cross-platform method of encoding and transferring information. The next layer uses Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), a method that allows applications to communicate across the Internet without the need for similar programming languages at each end. UDDI sits on top of this XML and SOAP stack providing a uniform way of describing and discovering Web-based services exposed by each participating business's e-commerce system. Version 2 of the standard was released in June 2001, with version 3 likely to be released toward the end of the year.

If you weren't on the bleeding edge of B2B, but instead waited for things to shake out and form a more palatable solution, then your time may be here. Get signed up to be listed and take UDDI for a test drive.

Andy Gibbs is a technology consultant with Currid & Company. You can reach him at Andy.Gibbs@currid.com