The J2EE Connector Architecture (JCA) outlines a standard architecture for enabling J2EE applications to access resources in diverse Enterprise Information Systems (EISs). The goal is to standardize access to non-relational resources in the same way the JDBC API standardizes access to relational data.

The J2EE Connector Architecture is implemented in a J2EE application server and an EIS-specific resource adapter. The resource adapter plugs into the J2EE application server and provides a system library specific to, and connectivity to, that EIS.

The Apache CXF JCA Connector is a JCA 1.5 resource adapter.