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What is ODBC?
ODBC stands for Open Database Connectivity, an industry standard for database access. Applications that support ODBC seemlessly integrate (at a binary level) with hundreds of SQL database systems. All SQL (and many non-SQL) database vendors support ODBC binary interfaces because ODBC is built-in to every copy of Windows sold for more than a decade and most applications exploit it. Despite the emergence of newer standards (OLEDB, ADO), most commercial applications like Excel continue to use ODBC because the newer standards didn't really offer any added benefit.
What are ODBC drivers?
A user installs ODBC drivers to connect their applications to a particular database brand and revision (eg, MYSQL 5), much like they would use a printer driver to connect their applications to a particular brand and model of printer (eg, HP 1175). But unlike printer drivers, ODBC drivers are complicated and sometimes very expensive, even when they are given away for free (due to support costs). By using our ODBC ROUTER, all such ODBC drivers are installed and maintained only on a centralized server while our much simpler (and free) OverDRIVER is deployed in their place on the user desktops, laptops and even non-Windows computers such as Macs and Linux web servers.
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