UDDI Operators Council Releases Version 3 of the UDDI Business Registry

Beta Version to Include Enhanced Functionality for Companies to Build Secure Web Services Registries; UDDI Operators SAP, IBM and Microsoft to Provide Beta API’s for Public Usage of UDDI Version 3 Free of Charge

PALO ALTO, Calif. - August 21, 2003 - The Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) Business Registry (UBR) Operators Council announced today the availability of UDDI Version 3 (V.3) beta nodes.

The Universal Description, Discovery and Integration protocol is one of the major building blocks that enable successful Web service deployments. UDDI creates a standard interoperable platform that enables companies and applications to quickly, easily and dynamically find and use Web services.

“The beta release of UBR V.3 takes a further step in bringing this important specification closer to successful real-world implementations,” said Charles Abrams, research director, Gartner Research. “The UDDI Operators Council is providing companies with an early opportunity to explore new functionality when considering extended Web service implementations.”

The UDDI V.3 Specification brings the following important capabilities to the UBR:

User-Defined Keys: This allows users to create human readable values for keys based on the known concept of domain names.
UDDI Business Registry (UBR) as a Root Registry: Once the UBR migrates to V.3, the UBR will serve as the recognized root registry for globally unique keys, where affiliate registries will be able to reserve UDDI keys.
Portable Keys: V.3 introduces the ability to copy keys between registries without being altered, enabling public and private registries to import information from others.
Digital Signatures: The addition of digital signature support for entities in UDDI enables clients to establish the veracity of data registered in the UBR.

UDDI is a cross-industry effort driven by major platform and software providers, as well as marketplace operators and e-business leaders within the OASIS standards consortium. IBM, Microsoft and SAP will provide UDDI V.3 beta nodes. With this beta, the UBR operators continue to provide validation of the UDDI specification through early reference implementations. Early availability of new V.3 features affords tool providers and early adopters publicly available access to this technology.

The UDDI Operators Council, which consists of IBM, Microsoft, NTT Communications and SAP, continues to provide support for the momentum in the developer community to harness real-world implementations of the advanced specification. The Operators Council documents and submits their experience with the beta implementation to the OASIS UDDI Specification Technical Committee to help refine and improve the UDDI V.3 Specification.

“As UDDI V.3 progresses toward an OASIS Standard, the UBR Beta implementation will provide for verification of the completeness of the specification, as well as give users and tool providers an opportunity to get ready for the new functionality,” said George Zagelow, managing director, UDDI Operators Council.

“OASIS is excited to see the release of UBR V.3. The UDDI Business Registry remains a visible channel for companies to explore and use UDDI in a public and live environment,” said Patrick Gannon, president and CEO, OASIS. “The reference implementation activity in the UBR also helps satisfy the OASIS implementation requirement for the V.3 specification to progress toward becoming an OASIS Standard.”

UDDI Business Registry V.3 beta implementations can be found at:

IBM: https://uddi.ibm.com/beta/registry.html
Microsoft: http://uddi.beta.microsoft.com
SAP: http://udditest.sap.com

About the UDDI Operators Council
As a cornerstone of the emerging Web services architecture, UDDI will benefit businesses of all sizes by creating an open platform-independent specification. As a part of the UDDI initiative, a UDDI Business Registry has been established to allow businesses to publish and discover Web services. The UDDI Operators Council is an organization composed of members from IBM, Microsoft, NTT Communications, and SAP, which provides and operates the UDDI Business Registry. More information about the UDDI Business Registry can be obtained at the above URLs and at www.uddi.org/find.html.

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For more information, press only:
IBM, Scott Cook, +1 (617) 693-3008, kenneth_cook@us.ibm.com, EDT
Microsoft, Rapid Response Team, +1 (503) 443-7070, rrt@wagged.com, PDT
SAP, Andrew Kisslo, +1 (650) 849-4259, andrew.kisslo@sap.com, PDT