UDDI, Interrupted

UDDI, or the Universal Description, Discovery and Integration protocol, got a bad rap a couple of years back when the dot-coms dot-bombed. UDDI is considered one of the four basic Web services standards (along with XML, SOAP, and WSDL), but was closely associated with e-commerce, intended to serve as the "yellow pages" for linking providers and consumers of Web services. Now, Systinet is positioning UDDI registry at the core of SOA efforts. In my work with WebServices.Org, I had the chance to chat with Luc Clement, co-chair of the OASIS UDDI Specification Technical Committee, and senior program manager at Systinet (and originally Microsoft's point person for UDDI). He admits that UDDI was ahead of its time when first announced in 2000, but now is needed for the first stage of building an SOA. An SOA requires the registry that UDDI provides for the visibility and reusability of the services that are called.