This book (2n Edition) is informative in the context of offering a comprehensive overview of various design concept involved in each tier of the J2EE application. If you are trying to envision what a J2EE platform can do for you, this is a good book to grab. While it provides some insight on design consideration, however, it defers the readers to seek for J2EE vendor implementation rather than offering a solution. Nevertheless, it does point out some advantage/disadvantage or the trade-off associated with choosing different implementation. It also provides some coverage on design patterns, framework (struts), security, transaction and state management using HttpSession or stateful EJB session bean. If you are involved in a J2EE project, this book will serve as a good reference for high-level design concept which puts together all J2EE related knowledge that you might have learned from elsewhere.