Pay Close Attention to UDDI

There is a school of thought that believes Web services will really start to take off when public UDDI directories/registries become more widespread. Essentially, once these directories are in place, enterprises will be able to find a wealth of object-oriented applications that can be automatically integrated with enterprise applications to provide enterprises with additional functionality. These Web services applications would be made available for a fee (which is how some of the Web services applications makers would make money), or in some cases for free.

As shown in Figure 7-1, Gartner Group (a highly respected research and analysis firm) estimates that Web services will really start to take off in 2005 as public UDDI directories emerge and mature.

Figure 7-1. When Will Your Organization Need to Adopt Web Services?

Source: "Web Services: Software as Service Comes Alive," Daryl Plummer, October 2001. Used by Permission.