Sun will build more service oriented architecture (SOA) technology into products with Project Kitty Hawk, unveiled at the company's JavaOne developer conference.

The company plans to update its Java Enterprise System and Java Studio Enterprise (JSE) development environment and introduce a new SOA readiness assessment programme.

Elements of Project Kitty Hawk are expected to appear in products from the first half of 2005.

Project Kitty Hawk will offer finer control in administering service level agreements, security policies, and identity and user management across the organisation, Sun claimed.

The company said that, by using the shared services model and federation approach offered by Project Kitty Hawk, IT departments will be able to work with "an enterprise-wide view of their services infrastructure".

Also to be introduced is a visual tool - code-named Project Disco - for assembling applications using Business Process Execution Language, which is designed to automate business processes.

Sun will also introduce a visual design modelling tool that uses SOA patterns and the universal modelling language. This will be incorporated in the next version of JSE, with a beta available later this month.

Java Studio Creator, unveiled earlier this week, includes web-tier application creation capability, while a new visual tool for design-to-test lifecycle control of SOA applications will be made available to Sun Developer Network subscribers.

Project Kitty Hawk will also include a business integration infrastructure based on Java Specification Request (JSR) 208, which is designed to provide standardisation for SOA applications.

Active members of the expert group working on the Sun-led JSR 208 initiative include BEA Systems, Oracle, SAP, SeeBeyond Technology, Tibco, Sonic and webMethods.

The readiness assessment programme, available immediately, covers discovery, analysis, working sessions and findings, with Sun Services delivering a report with recommendations for migration to SOA.

Kitty Hawk is the place from where, in 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright made what is recognised as the first powered flight.