Essential ADO.NET

8.3. Staying with OLE DB: Interaction with the OleDb Data Provider

ODBC and OLE DB providers have the advantage of being directly hooked into other Microsoft and third-party products. Microsoft Access, for example, can use any ODBC driver to directly expose data as though it came from Access databases, for use by Access applications. SQL Server permits OLE DB data sources to be used in distributed queries. SQL Server 7.0 and later can also use any OLE DB provider to import, export, and transform data with its Data Transformation Services feature. Crystal Reports can use ODBC drivers or ADO Recordsets for input to reporting. Other products generate OLAP data or XML schemas from existing data sources through ADO or ODBC.

These and other examples ...