Web services registries get wired

Oracle this week signed an OEM deal to embed Systinet's registry in Oracle's Fusion middleware version 3, a sign that Web services and service-oriented architectures are maturing.

The idea of a registry, which provides a repository of available Web services, has steadily caught on despite been initially over-hyped. Systinet's registry, which is based on the UDDI standard, also provides a way to track usage information on individual programs.

Systinet established a similar arrangement with BEA Systems earlier this year to include its registry in BEA application servers.

Another stand-alone registry company of note is Infravio, which itself recently released a major update to its X-Registry.

Although registries were originally envisioned as sort of a phone book for Web services, they do more than act as a directory of available software, said Miko Matsumura, the vice president of marketing and technology standards at Infravio.

A full- featured also allows IT organizations to track different types of changes, such as differing configurations of Web services and the workflow involved in putting them into production.

As such, registries can be used by different people within an organization, including architects, developers and business managers, as a "governance" tool, he said.