The .NET Framework 1.0 ships with the
Microsoft SQL Server .NET data provider and OLE DB .NET data
provider. The .NET Framework 1.1 also includes both the Oracle and
ODBC .NET data providers. A .NET data provider connects to the data
source and executes commands, either to retrieve results or to modify
the data in the data source. It is possible to create a
.NET data provider for practically any
data source: Exchange servers, XML documents, and SQL databases other
than those .NET supports out of the box. Figure 2-1
shows the relationship between the ADO.NET data providers that ship
with .NET, the data sources that they access, and the disconnected
ADO.NET classes.
