BEA is turning its middleware into modular applications in a move designed to mimic how enterprises are adopting componentised applications as part of service oriented architectures (SOAs). 

SOA is an architecture to build and maintain applications in an enterprise. Rather than designing applications from the ground up, SOA allows developers to reuse code between departments and combine resources from all over the company.

BEA, however, is now applying the same ideas to the middleware applications that are used to run SOAs, chief technology officer Rob Levy explained in an interview.

"It's about time we stopped looking at SOA as just an architecture and started thinking about the true implications of SOA in its new role in development," he told vnunet.com. 

The componentised middleware is part of BEA's vision of a 'micro services architecture' (MSA) which the vendor is scheduled to unveil on Tuesday at BEA World in San Francisco.

MSA defines a common platform and presentation layer on top of which components are stacked, each performing a specific business function.