100% Managed Code, Wire Protocol ADO.NET Data Provider

Provides superior performance and scalability
Progress DataDirect providers have been proven in benchmark tests to significantly improve performance (50% to 350%) under load, while demanding fewer server and network resources.

Without the overhead of managed code, your application will respond faster and be able to handle many users and large volumes of data without diminishing performance.

Other ADO.NET data providers are not 100% managed because they rely on Oracle, Sybase or DB2 database client libraries (e.g., Oracle SQL*Net, DB2 Connect, Sybase CTlib) to communicate with the database, making calls to unmanaged code in the libraries.

If you’re deploying many .NET applications, or if your application needs to handle large amounts of data, these numerous calls outside the .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR) can seriously degrade performance and become a scalability nightmare.

Delivers better security
Because the Progress DataDirect provider runs entirely within the .NET CLR, it leverages the security controls provided by the .NET Framework.

100% managed code also has no direct access to memory, machine registers, or pointers. In addition, .NET security enforces restrictions (called Code Access Security — CAS) on all managed code, protecting it from being misused or damaged by other code — a feature that’s become increasingly important for .NET applications.

Other providers call unmanaged code in the client libraries, which bypasses the .NET CLR security This opens a door to potential compromise via code that uses pointers or has direct access to memory or machine registers. Once that unmanaged code is executing, the CLR can no longer check it.

In addition, database client libraries are often rife with memory leak issues that propagate up through a client-based provider to the application. Hackers may intentionally leverage the memory leak to impede access to legitimate users of the application. Identifying and fixing these memory leaks in every single deployment of the client is expensive and time-consuming.

Ensures reliability for demanding mission-critical environments
Because the DataDirect 100% managed, wire protocol provider runs entirely within the .NET runtime environment, it can take advantage of memory management provided by the .NET CLR, which makes for more reliable production applications.

In addition, DataDirect providers are quality tested and certified using our extensive ADO.NET Verification Suite (ADOVS), verifying all supported Windows platforms and database versions.

Because other data providers rely on non-managed components, they cannot rely on .NET memory management, and often introduce memory leaks and other issues that can lead to application failures. Very often these issues are not experienced until production time due to increased load.

In addition, if you run into issues with the database vendor's provider, you'll be relying on issue resolution from a vendor who isn't focused exclusively on data connectivity. That's the last thing you need for a critical application.

Enables faster, more flexible deployment
DataDirect providers don’t require database client libraries, and one provider supports multiple versions of the database. This means you can do “side-by-side” installation, allowing you to run multiple applications using different versions of the database on the same machine.

It also eliminates the need to re-qualify unrelated applications if an application is updated.

Eliminates the need for database client libraries
DataDirect data providers communicate directly with the database through wire level protocol, eliminating the need for the native database client libraries.

As a result, deployment costs and installation upgrades are effectively eliminated, as are conflicts between client versions.

Other .NET data providers require native database client installations, adding substantial cost to deployment and maintenance, and increasing the likelihood of client version conflicts.

Additionally, this approach adds substantial cost and complexity to testing and quality assurance each time clients are upgraded.