OLE DB

Short for Object Linking and Embedding Data Base. OLE DB is a set of COM-based interfaces that expose data from a range of sources. OLE DB interfaces give applications standardized access to data stored in various information sources like Relational Database Management Systems (MS SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL), small personal databases like MS Access, productivity tools like spreadsheets; plain text files, etc. These interfaces support the amount of DBMS functionality appropriate to the data store, allowing the data store to share its data.