It touched upon the need for a new data access architecture and the problems it solves. It also showed how ADO.NET is logically grouped in the connected and disconnected parts and how various data sources are supported using the ProviderBase model. It outlined the challenges you can face when working with different providers available in ADO.NET as well as the various facilities ADO.NET provides to create a data source-agnostic data layer.

In the next chapter, you will build upon what you have already learned in this chapter and logically group the various classes into the namespace architecture that ADO.NET provides.