Chapter 6. Getting Started with ADO.NET
IN THIS CHAPTER
ADO.NET is Microsoft's new technology for accessing data. Microsoft has long been at the forefront of the universal data access movement, starting with the original Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) almost nine years ago. There's really no disputing the importance of data access to modern applications, but how you access the data has a significant impact on the performance and scalability of the application. Add to this the fact that applications are growing increasingly distributed, and passing large amounts of data from one place to another becomes an even more critical part of designing and building applications.
Microsoft has had a long time to work on data access. It has gone through a number of major changes in data access technology, and ADO.NET is no different. Developers will discover a whole new way to create scalable data-driven applications. By combining the power of data access, XML, and the .NET Framework, Microsoft has introduced its most powerful data access technology to date.