Runner will create a lightweight portal infrastructure that Web application developers can use as a foundation to build on.

"What we've realized is that there are so many Web apps in an enterprise that aren't portal apps, we want to be able to help people manage those, too," Carges said. Builder will work with SOA tools from AquaLogic and will give ordinary users the ability to tap into SOA data stores without extensive custom coding, he explained.

BEA is targeting the new products for the first half of 2007. The tools could be wrapped into AquaLogic or be spun out as their own products, Carges said.