Summary
Linked servers are a great way to share data between multiple data sources, whether the systems are SQL Server, Oracle, Excel sheets, or whatever. There are several ways to access and manipulate data across these links, each with its own benefits and drawbacks. Since each method is imperfect, most database solutions incorporate various elements of each, whether implementing stored procedures to update data remotely or using OPENQUERY to pull back result sets. Depending on the situation, each method can promote good performance and low resource utilization.