The J2EE platform uses a distributed multitiered application model for enterprise applications. Application logic is divided into components according to function, and the various application components that make up a J2EE application are installed on different machines depending on the tier in the multitiered J2EE environment to which the application component belongs.

 Client-tier components run on the client machine.

 Web-tier components run on the J2EE server.

 Business-tier components run on the J2EE server.

 Enterprise information system (EIS)-tier software runs on the EIS server.

J2EE multitiered applications are generally considered to be three-tiered applications because they are distributed over three locations: client machines, the J2EE server machine, and the database or legacy machines at the back end. Three-tiered applications that run in this way extend the standard two-tiered client and server model by placing a multithreaded application server between the client application and back-end storage.

J2EE components are written in the Java programming language and are compiled in the same way as any program in the language. The difference between J2EE components and "standard" Java classes is that J2EE components are assembled into a J2EE application, are verified to be well formed and in compliance with the J2EE specification, and are deployed to production, where they are run and managed by the J2EE server.

J2EE Clients

A J2EE client can be a web client or an application client.

 Web Clients

 Applets

 Application Clients