On Insuring Interoperability of OLE DB Based Data Access

This paper presents an overview of a practical experience on insuring interoperability of OLE DB based data access. After a short introduction to OLE DB technology and to the three-tier client-server architecture, the architecture of an application server model is outlined that includes a custom defined OLE DB provider. Such an approach was tested against the most promising DBMSs available today, here including Microsoft Access and SQL Server, Sybase, Informix, Oracle, IBM DB2 and NCR Teradata. The paper additionally outlines the problems incurred into and presents solutions for some of them as well as proposals for future work for the other.