REDMOND, WA -- May 2, 2001-- The Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) project today announced that its global Business Registry is fully operational, marking the successful completion of live beta testing.
UDDI is often referred to as a standard, but it is actually more like a Yellow Pages for the Internet. Alan Duckworth, of Dun & Bradstreet explains that, UDDI is really just a set of databases where businesses can register their Web services as well as locate other Web services they may be interested in leveraging. Today's announcement, therefore, simply means that users can now go online and register themselves for the service. Nevertheless, the launch is a milestone for the fast-growing UDDI project, which has expanded from an initial 36 companies in September 2000 to more than 260 community members today.
"UDDI is an important component in helping e-businesses fully exploit the advantages of Web services," said Chris Kurt, general program manager for UDDI.org. "For the past several months, early adopters in the UDDI beta test have been able to experiment with this online directory for registering business services, identifying new partners and learning which technical specifications are needed to communicate with a partner's system. With version 1 now fully operational, the UDDI's global Business Registry is ready to help even more businesses, regardless of size, position their products and offerings as Web services. The need for universal interoperability for B2B transactions is driving the adoption of UDDI. Companies of all sizes can register themselves on UDDI to gain exposure to other e-businesses looking for specific B2B relationships.
