Step By Step: Getting Started With UDDI

By Richard Karpinski

If some Web services protocols such as SOAP have soared—and they have, despite high-profile consumer missteps like Microsoft Hailstorm—then it's also fair to say that UDDI stalled on the take-off ramp.

UDDI, or Universal Description, Discovery and Integration, aims to create a registry in which developers can sign in their Web services and have customers or trading partners discover and consume them.

UDDI has gotten off to a slow start. That's at least in part because Web services are still in their infancy, so a registry that tracks them may be a bit premature. It's also because early versions of the UDDI specs were more focused on supporting large, replicated public versions of a UDDI registry.

This week, this key standard took a couple of big steps forward. Version 3 of the specification was published, with some important technology advances for the enterprise. And the UDDI.org group shepherding this would-be standard moved its work over the OASIS group, a key landing spot for a growing number of Web services standards.

So after a slow start, it looks like it's time to get serious about UDDI. Here are the steps smart enterprises should take to get started:

Step 1: Get Up To Speed On The Specs

Step 2: Resolve Public/Private Dichotomy

Step 3: Step Up To The Server

Then, check out our UDDI Briefing Book, for news, features, links and more to help you get started with UDDI.

UDDI won't make a big impact on your enterprise overnight. But the time has come to begin assessing its potential, first as an enabler for your internal Web services processes, and later as a more dynamic tool for exposing and consuming those services.

Let's get started.

Next: Step 1: Get Up To Speed On The Specs