The document introduces the architecture of J2EE distributed applications. J2EE uses a multi-tiered model where application logic is divided into components installed on different machines depending on their tier. J2EE applications are generally three-tiered, with a client tier, application server tier, and database tier. The application server maintains control through containers and provides services to Web, EJB and client-side components. Components are assembled into applications along with deployment descriptors that configure settings for the containers. Major component types are session beans for business logic and entity beans for persistent data.