J2EE is Oracle's enterprise Java computing platform that provides APIs for object relational mapping, distributed applications, and multi-tier architectures. The J2EE development lifecycle involves developing components for persistence, business logic, and presentation; configuring deployment descriptors; building packages; and deploying packages on a J2EE server container. Benefits of J2EE include a concept-based architecture, code sharing, portability, security, and faster time to market. J2EE components include client side, web, business, and server side components. J2EE extends Java SE and is used for server-side applications while Java is mainly used for desktop applications.