The embedded enterprise bean container is used to access enterprise bean components from client code executed in a Java SE environment. The container and the client code are executed within the same virtual machine. The embedded enterprise bean container is typically used for testing enterprise beans without having to deploy them to a server.

Most of the services present in the enterprise bean container in a Java EE server are available in the embedded enterprise bean container, including injection, container-managed transactions, and security. Enterprise bean components execute similarly in both embedded and Java EE environments, and therefore the same enterprise bean can be easily reused in both standalone and networked applications.