Universal Data Access is really an evolutionary step from today's standard data interfaces we have discussed. We know about the alphabet soup of ODBC, RDO, and DAO. UDA is a step to extend the functionality of these well-known and solid technologies. The bundle of technologies that make up UDA consist of ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), Remote Data Services, (RDS, formerly known as Advanced Database Connector or ADC), OLE DB, and Open Database Connectivity (ODBC). Together, these interfaces provide us the means to work with just about any data source. And together they are known as Universal Data Access.
So let's start looking in detail at ADO.