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ADO.NET is a set of computer software components that programmers can use to access data and data services based on disconnected DataSets and XML. It is a part of the base class library that is included with the Microsoft .NET Framework. It is commonly used by programmers to access and modify data stored in relational database systems, though it can also access data in non-relational sources. ADO.NET is sometimes considered an evolution of ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) technology, but was changed so extensively that it can be considered an entirely new product.
ADO.NET is conceptually divided into consumers and data providers. The consumers are the applications that need access to the data, and the providers are the software components that implement the interface and thereby provide the data to the consumer.
Functionality exists in Visual Studio IDE to create specialized subclasses of the DataSet classes for a particular database schema, allowing convenient access to each field through strongly typed properties. This helps catch more programming errors at compile-time and enhances the IDE's Intellisense feature.
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