Introduction

Microsoft has introduced many kinds of database access technologies. I think everyone remembers Data Access Objects (DAO) or, at least had some dealings with it in some form to read and update an Access database or ODBC-based data source. If Microsoft DAO wasn t your thing, you might have used Open Database Connectivity (ODBC). ODBC technology used an Application Programming Interface (API). Remote Data Objects (RDO) was then introduced. RDO was a thin layer that sat on top of ODBC to provide a more efficient way of accessing data on a server-based DBMS. When the Internet took off, there was a need to take advantage of this medium to retrieve information. In 1996, Microsoft introduced Active Server Pages (ASP) in order to create dynamic Web pages instead of static Web pages. The Web pages were dynamic in that the page itself was able to display information as it was stored in a database at the time the information was retrieved. Traditionally, ASP pages have used the high-level interface called Active Data Objects (ADO) to access databases, because ADO is scriptable. ADO is built on top of the low-level OleDB interfaces.

Microsoft re-examined how their customers accessed and consumed data, how the Internet has changed, and how new technology has come into play (such as XML). Microsoft has envisioned that the .NET Framework will go beyond today s traditional ways of processing information. Microsoft is not looking just to integrate or provide the tools and technologies to solve business requirements at the...