Your First Cup: An Introduction to the Java EE Platform

The Client Tier

The client tier consists of application clients that access a Java EE server and that are usually located on a different machine from the server. The clients make requests to the server. The server processes the requests and returns a response back to the client. Many different types of applications can be Java EE clients, and they are not always, or even often Java applications. Clients can be a web browser, a standalone application, or other servers, and they run on a different machine from the Java EE server.