Microsoft Aligning with ODBC

Today we are announcing that Microsoft is aligning with ODBC for native relational data access – the de-facto industry standard. This move supports our commitment to interoperability and our partners and customers’ journey to the cloud. SQL Azure is already aligned with ODBC today.

Conversations with our customers and partners have shown that many of you are already on this path. The marketplace is moving away from OLE DB and towards ODBC, with an eye towards supporting PHP and multi-platform solutions. Making this move to ODBC also drives more clarity for our C/C++ programmers who can now focus their efforts on one API.

The commercial release of Microsoft SQL Server, codename “Denali,” will be the last release to support OLE DB. Support details for the release version of SQL Server “Denali” will be made available within 90 days of release to manufacturing. We encourage you to adopt ODBC in any future version or new application development. For more information on Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policies for Microsoft Business and Developer products, please see Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy FAQ.

 

To submit technical questions, please log onto:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/sqldataaccess/threads

For more on SQL Server and Microsoft’s commitment to interoperability, see:
http://blogs.technet.com/b/dataplatforminsider/archive/2011/08/29/microsoft-s-commitment-to-interoperability.aspx
Note: This blog post was updated on September 13th, 2011 to reflect that the time frame for OLE DB support in SQL Server Code Name “Denali” will be made available within 90 days of release to manufacturing. We are committed to supporting features in SQL Server Code Name “Denali” through the product’s lifecycle as per Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy.