Ebook: Java™ Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) Specification 8.0

Enterprises today need to extend their reach, reduce their costs, and lower the response times of their services to customers, employees, and suppliers. Typically, applications that provide these services must combine existing enterprise information systems (EISs) with new business functions that deliver services to a broad range of users. The services need to be:

• Highly available, to meet the needs of today’s global business environment.

• Secure, to protect the privacy of users and the integrity of the enterprise.

• Reliable and scalable, to ensure that business transactions are accurately and promptly processed.

In most cases, enterprise services are implemented as multitier applications. The middle tiers integrate existing EISs with the business functions and data of the new service. Maturing web technologies are used to provide first tier users with easy access to business complexities, and eliminate or drastically reduce user administration and training.

The Java™ Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java™ EE) reduces the cost and complexity of developing multitier, enterprise services. Java EE applications can be rapidly deployed and easily enhanced as the enterprise responds to competitive pressures.
Java EE achieves these benefits by defining a standard architecture with the following elements:

• Java EE Platform - A standard platform for hosting Java EE applications.

• Java EE Compatibility Test Suite - A suite of compatibility tests for verifying that a Java EE platform product complies with the Java EE platform standard.

• Java EE Reference Implementation - A reference implementation for prototyping Java EE applications and for providing an operational definition of the Java EE platform.

This document is the Java EE platform specification. It sets out the requirements that a Java EE platform product must meet.