What is ADO? - About Universal Data Access
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Universal Data Access (UDA) is Microsoft’s strategy for dealing with all this data. It’s aimed at providing high-performance access to a variety of data stores. Cynics might suspect this to be an attempt to shoehorn another Microsoft technology into the scene, but let’s consider the modern business.
To have a successful business, you must be flexible and adapt to change. How do you know when to change? There’s no simple rule, but most companies make decisions by asking a few questions: How much can we sell? How much are we selling? How much are our competitors selling? What’s the profit margin? What does research show about what customers want? Statistical analysis can answer questions like these, but what is the source of the statistics? That’s right, data. But you’ve already seen that data is stored in many different ways, and there is no central way of accessing it all. UDA offers an easy-to-use methodology that allows access to multiple sources of data in a single way. Build in high performance and support for existing data access methods, and you’re on your way to something that could make a real difference. It’s important to remember that UDA is simply Microsoft’s strategy for accessing data, not a technology. UDA is physically implemented as a collection of four technologies: ADO, OLE DB, Remote Data Services (RDS), and Open Database Connectivity (ODBC). Collectively, these four technologies are known as the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC). This means that you don’t have to bundle all your data into a single data store. Here’s how it can work.
When building an application, you can make sure it uses ADO for its data access, and ADO will talk to all the data sources required. This means that programming is easier, because you need learn only one programming syntax, as shown in the following illustration. Because ADO provides fast, transparent access to different types of data, there’s no reason to use any other method.
You can clearly see what Microsoft intends when you look at the three main design goals for the Data Access Components:
- Meeting the key customer requirements, such as performance, reliability, and broad industry support
- Giving access to the widest range of data sources through a common interface
- Providing an easy migration path for existing data access technologies
So far they seem to be meeting these objectives admirably.
This method contrasts with Oracle, which is pushing Universal Server, in which all data will be stored under one central (proprietary) data store. The ultimate aim is the same: broader access to data. The Oracle approach involves a bigger initial investment in data conversion and translation as the data is imported to the store. But once that investment has been made, the data will be easy to access. Of course, ADO can access Oracle databases.
In terms of superiority, it’s difficult to choose between the two methods; the best method for you will depend upon your business needs and current computer systems. Bear in mind though, these points:
- With UDA you can write code today to access most major data stores and develop your own OLE DB Provider to access those data stores that don’t already provide support for UDA technologies.
- Data conversion is very costly and error prone. Additionally, it rarely results in a fully integrated solution—something much needed for the businesses of today to become the e-businesses of tomorrow.
- New data types and data stores are emerging all the time. Instead of waiting on Oracle or other vendors to write data migration tools, you can write data access code to retrieve and manipulate the data in its native data store and in its native format.
 This is from ADO Programmer's Reference, by Dave Sussman (Apress, ISBN 1590593421). Check it out at your favorite bookstore today. Buy this book now. |
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