UDDI is one of four technologies that form the basis of most Web services development. The others are Extensible Markup Language (XML), the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) and Web Services Description Language (WSDL). To understand how these protocols work together, consider an ordinary phone call. In Web services parlance, XML represents the conversation, SOAP describes the rules for how to call someone, and UDDI is the phone book. WSDL, finally, describes what the phone call is about and how one can participate. The evolution of UDDI mirrors the Web services market in general. Companies such as Microsoft expected the evolution of Web services to happen on the open Internet, while the real developments have been happening within corporate IT departments. The same seems to be the case with UDDI -- and now software makers are reworking their pitches to reflect this change in tune. Some in the industry think the project is far ahead of market realities, at least for now. "You don't need a phone book if you only have one person to call," said John Magee, a senior vice president in marketing at database maker Oracle. Like other software makers, Oracle plans to incorporate UDDI into its server software for use within companies. It could take four to five years before the public UDDI registry fully lives up to its promise, analysts say. One of the main issues preventing a public directory is trust. Despite the ease of finding companies on the directory, very few businesses would be willing to take a chance on an unknown Web service provider. So far, there's no rating system for services on the directory; such a service would help companies choose partners, and would ensure better service quality, analysts have said. Another problem is security. Few companies would be willing to expose sensitive internal information over the Internet. New security specifications are in the works, but are still in the early stages. Keeping goods inside the walls
While the public UDDI registry awaits a more mature Web services market, private UDDI-based directories are starting to gain respect. Private directories provide a central list of Web services a company uses to connect to its customers, suppliers or partners. A locally hosted UDDI directory can also serve as a central database of Web services, so programmers can reuse code or adapt existing services for new uses. "Private UDDI is a pragmatic application of the same technical ideas (behind public directories) to a more realistic end," said Illuminata analyst James Governor. Research firm Gartner predicts that private UDDI use will grow by more than 30 percent next year, as companies on the cutting edge of Web services start using UDDI. In contrast, Gartner doesn't predict an increase in the use of public UDDI directories until 2004 -- at the earliest. Slowly, companies are starting to look at UDDI for directory services, said Bernhard Borges, head of the Advanced Technology Group at computer services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting. Borges said Web services development has initially focused on integrating applications and corporate intranets, which means most of the work resides behind corporate firewalls. "The rollout of Web services will be intranet, extranet and finally the Internet," he said. Recognizing that trend, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, IBM and others are building private UDDI directory capabilities into their software products. Microsoft plans to make UDDI a standard part of Windows .Net Server, the next version of its server operating system, expected to debut later this year. In the next six months, the market can expect more products from other companies that incorporate UDDI. Technology buyers are catching on. American Electric Power plans to explore building a private UDDI directory to keep track of the company's Web services for its 200 IT professionals. Having a directory helps software developers keep track of services they've created, and prevents any overlap or miscommunication -- from developers working in different departments or different states. "No one knows about the Web services out there in the corporation. There is no searchable directory," said Chris Adams, the Oklahoma power company's IT architect for customer interface applications. "We want to streamline what we're doing, rather than have everyone develop the same source code." Many companies, connecting to their partners via the Web for the first time, are simply making phone calls or providing information in a password-protected Web site on how their partners can connect to a Web service, said Anne Thomas Manes, chief technology officer for Systinet, which builds private UDDI depositories. French cosmetics company L'Oréal is doing just that, but plans to use a private UDDI registry in the future. The company recently integrated its Web site with a partner, German retailer Douglas. Through Web services, Douglas can tap the L'Oréal Web site -- and grab product information and pictures -- so it can sell the cosmetic company's Lancôme products. The company will soon work on projects in the United States, Europe and Asia. L'Oreal's experience mirrors many Web services efforts now under way, said IBM's Sutor. "We're at the point that most people will look at (UDDI) and see it as a solid technology. The private... usage is well into the early-adopter phase." L'Oréal plans to use a private UDDI registry as soon as later this summer, said Jérôme Perelevade, L'Oréal's head technology officer. "We'll begin to think about UDDI when we have more clients and when we want to (automate) even more the whole process," Perelevade said. "We will surely use UDDI when we deal with functionalities that less need a direct relation between us and our partners. UDDI is a great solution." CNET's Mike Ricciuti and Larry Dignan contributed to this report.
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