ADO.NET Data Provider Key Features

ADO.NET Programmability

• ADO.NET Entity Framework (EF 4.0 and 1.0)
• Enterprise Libraries 5.0
• NHibernate
• ADO.NET 3.5

Performance

• 100% managed code, wire protocol architecture delivers more throughput while using fewer CPU, memory, and network resources
• Visual Studio integrated Performance Tuning Wizard
• Multiple connection tuning options
• Bulk load operations via ADO.NET Bulk APIs
• Pooling and managing connections
• Statement caching
• Single Sign-On
• Optimized data, data type conversions
• Tunable socket, array size, and DataSet management
• Batching and throughput optimization

Security

• Operating system authentication (aka Single Sign-On) via Kerberos
• SSL data encryption
• Optimal use of .NET Framework security controls

Enterprise Application Functionality

• Connection failover and load balancing
• Bulk load operations via ADO.NET Bulk APIs
• Side-by-side installation
• Load balancing
• ClickOnce deployment
• SQL up-leveling
• Interoperability between databases and different versions of each database
• Single Sign-On
• Statistics in Entity Framework

Provider Functionality

• Support for LINQ, Entity SQL, and Microsoft Enterprise Libraries
• Seamless integration with Visual Studio 2005, 2008 and 2010
• One provider supports all versions of a database
• Statistical counters integrated with Windows perfmon
• Full Unicode and ANSI character set support
• Built-in runtime troubleshooting and tracing capabilities
• Advanced data type support
• Distributed transaction support
• Connection Statistics and Client Monitoring Information
• Asynchronous Commit Functionality – Control whether aspects of a commit operation are performed synchronously or asynchronously. Provides better control so you can make trade-offs between transaction control and application response time

.NET Framework

• Support for .NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, and 4.0
• 32-bit and 64-bit version support
• Support for .NET Framework 1.x
• Silverlight Support