| July 17, 2002 |
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NTT Communications Corporation |
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NTT Com and IBM to Build Asia’s First UDDI Business Registry |
| TOKYO, JAPAN –– NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com) and IBM Corporation announced today that the two companies will collaborate to construct NTT Com’s UDDI Business Registry. This will be Asia’s first Universal Description Discover and Integration Registry, and will use IBM’s WebSphere1 and DB22 products and technologies. Joint construction will begin in mid-July and operations will commence in October this year. The UDDI Project3 is a worldwide initiative to enable businesses, irrespective of industry, to quickly, easily and dynamically find one another, leading potentially to new business-to-business e-commerce. UDDI enables a company to describe its business and services on the Internet, to discover other companies that offer desired services, and to negotiate and settle with those companies (please see www.uddi.org). The UDDI Business Registry is a global public online catalog for companies to register their business and the services they offer. The registry allows a business to easily locate a supplier to meet its needs and then to negotiate and settle e-transactions. It is a significant part of the framework supporting Web services4. Today’s joint announcement paves the way for commercial e-commerce expansion in the Asian region. In December 2001 NTT Com received approval to become Asia’s first Business Registry node operator under the UDDI Project. NTT Com chose IBM based on IBM’s leadership in advancing Web services standards and its comprehensive Web services-enabled product portfolio. “As the first UDDI operator in Asia, NTT Com is dedicating its efforts to help customers and partners take advantage of Web services,” says Akira Kotani, vice president, Business Product Development and Marketing Department of NTT Com. NTT Com will base its Business Registry on IBM’s model, and will translate the user interface and management code into Japanese. The registry will operate in IBM’s WebSphere runtime environment5 and will use IBM’s DB2 software for data repository6, thereby enabling construction of the registry system based on Web services standards. “UDDI is an essential component of the Web services infrastructure, and allowing companies to easily discover and transact with each other will help advance the Web services movement,” said Rod Smith, vice president of Emerging Technology, IBM. “IBM is pleased that NTT Com has chosen to build its UDDI Business Registry with our WebSphere and DB2 products to drive the adoption of Web services in the Asia-Pacific region.” NTT Com will continue playing its part in developing the Web services platform. The firm will not only promote Web services as a registry node operator, but offer shared functions necessary for corporate transactions, such as authentication and message receipt notification. <Attachment> Notes: 1 WebSphere: IBM’s market-leading Internet infrastructure software, or middleware, for creating, running and integrating e-business applications across a variety of computing platforms. Compatible with open standards such as J2EE, XML and the new Web services standards. 2 DB2: IBM’s database management product with superb cost performance and strong support system. 3 UDDI Project: An initiative launched in September 2000 to promote the development of B2B e-commerce. Currently over 300 corporations participate as members. NTT Com, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and SAP are approved by the Project as UDDI Business Registry node operators. The operators regularly update their database based on newly registered information from other operators’ registries, thereby enabling end users to access Web services from around the world. 4 Web services: A type of e-commerce service that offers cross-industry application integration and system construction using the latest technologies, such as UDDI, XML, SOAP and WSDL. 5 WebSphere runtime environment: Application environment which serves as the core to develop, integrate and manage e-business applications. Supports various applications, from web presentations to complex transactions. 6 Data repository: A system that stores important corporate data and allows that data to be retrieved whenever required. About NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com) NTT Com, a Tokyo-based subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, provides long-distance and international services for voice, video and data communication reaching more than 200 countries. NTT Com also provides world-class IP services under the NTT/VERIO brand, as well as managed data, multimedia and additional services under the Arcstar brand. For more information, please visit www.ntt.com About IBM Corporation IBM is the world’s largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate. IBM software offers the widest range of infrastructure software for all types of computing platforms, allowing customers to take full advantage of the new era of e-business. The fastest way to get more information about IBM software is through the IBM home page at http://www.ibm.com/software/. IBM, WebSphere and DB2 are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. |
