OLE DB is a relatively new, Microsoft API. It is an outgrowth of the older, ODBC API specification, and its raison d’etre is data integration. Whereas ODBC retrieves and manipulates SQL data in relational and non-relation Database Management Systems, OLE DB uses a variety of query languages to retrieve and manipulate SQL, XML, flat file, email, and other heterogeneous data. In fact, OLE DB returns all data in column and row format despite the original, underlying structure.
ODBC is sufficient for most data access needs.
Consequently, few vendors have adopted this new specification.
Currently, mature OLE DB providers exist only for SQLServer databases.
Other OLE DB providers are under-developed and buggy.
As a result,