A method and system for sharing existing user and group registry information between heterogeneous application servers is provided. The method and system make use of an adapter that communicates with each registry associated with each application server through a registry communication mechanism. In a preferred embodiment, the present invention provides an additional application-specific database to protect application-specific data that is required for each application server's operation but is not part of an existing database registry. Both the application-specific databases and existing user and group definitions in a user and group registry form a new registry abstraction which is required for each application server. As a result, each application server automatically shares user and group definitions with the existing database server. Furthermore, both the database server and each application server maintain a centralized user and group management model across different application domains.