DataDirect Oracle ODBC Driver Competitive Matrix

Best ODBC driver performance Outperforms competitive drivers and even applications written to the native protocol of Oracle (OCI).

Requires Oracle SQL*Net client libraries, creating communication overhead that can seriously degrade performance and scalability.

Eliminates the need for Oracle SQL*Net client libraries
Wire protocol architecture does not require client libraries, which reduces the time and cost of deploying and maintaining applications.

Requires the download, installation, and configuration of the Oracle SQL*Net client libraries on each machine where the ODBC driver is deployed.

One driver supports multiple Oracle versions
Supports simultaneous connections to Oracle 8i, 9i, 10g, and 11g, which significantly reduces the costs of deploying and testing applications against multiple versions of Oracle.

Four different drivers are required to support Oracle 8i, 9i, 10g, and 11g. Different versions of the client libraries are also required, which can’t support simultaneous connections to different versions of the database from the same machine.

UNIX / Linux support
Only DataDirect offers an ODBC driver for Oracle on every major platform – Windows (including v7), Linux and UNIX, including UNIX platforms such as IBM AIX, HP-UX, and Sun Solaris, across a wide range of processor architectures.

Dependence on Oracle client libraries restricts the UNIX platforms Oracle can support.

64-bit driver available
Takes full advantage of 64-bit processing speeds for 64-bit applications.

Dependence on Oracle client libraries limits support of 64-bit applications.

Bulk Load
Includes a high-performance bulk load capability for loading large amounts of data very quickly. Does not require application code changes or additional bulk load tools such as Oracle SQL Loader.

Requires application code changes and additional proprietary bulk load tool (Oracle SQL Loader) with slower performance.

Application failover and load balancing
The DataDirect driver completely manages application failover, disaster recovery, and balancing of work load across multiple Oracle databases without requiring changes to application code. DataDirect’s unique approach can be used with or without Oracle RAC.

Requires Oracle RAC servers and proprietary changes to application code.

Reliability for demanding production environments
Quality tested and certified with a wide variety of applications and environments using the DataDirect ODBC Verification Suite (OVS), the largest, most mature ODBC testing infrastructure.

Reported issues include application crashes and hangs, threading issues, and problems handling data and data types.

Advanced security features
Our drivers include industry-standard security mechanisms: SSL data encryption to secure the integrity of your data and provide client/server authentication; and operating system authentication via Kerberos, allowing you to include database access in a Single Sign-On environment.

Security features require installation, setup, and configuration of Oracle SQL*Net client libraries.

Complete interoperability between databases
SQL Up-Leveling and other interoperability features make it easy and cost-effective for an application to support multiple databases (Oracle, SQL Server, DB2, Sybase, and more).

Requires the use of Oracle-specific implementations of many common ODBC functions. This introduces "vendor lock-in" and increases the cost of developing an application to support non-Oracle databases.

Comprehensive technical support Focused on database connectivity, our award-winning support includes 24x7 phone, web, email, forum, and an extensive knowledgebase.

Superior technical support is essential to resolve data connectivity issues quickly, thereby reducing the total cost of ownership of software.

Because Oracle is not focused primarily on data connectivity, troubleshooting will be more difficult and take longer.