Enter ADO.NET
.NET has ushered in the most fundamental change to programming for the Intel platform since the shift from MS-DOS to the graphical, event-oriented interface of Windows. Data access was not immune to sweeping changes, as Microsoft decided to completely rewrite it to align it with the rest of the .NET framework. ADO.NET is focused on providing services to managed client code running under the Common Language Runtime (CLR). It also has intrinsic XML capabilities to assist the developer in building distributed applications such as web services that are based on universally accessible Internet protocols.