You can use JNDI to set up a database for the application or use JDBC directly within your code. JNDI will allow you to use connection pooling and is simpler to use, once set up, read the Tomcat Documentation (accessable from the Tomcat startup page on 127.0.0.1 or
http://localhost)
Should point out that JNDI still uses JDBC, JDBC is the way Java connects to databases, you MUST use it, what the tomcat documentation shows is one of TWO ways this can be done.