Products : Connect for JDBC : Why License Our JDBC Driver?

Why License Our JDBC Driver?

High quality products for the best overall driver experience

At DataDirect Technologies our sole focus is building great database connectivity components. Customers consider the cost of our drivers a small investment that is returned many times over by bottom line improvements in increased revenue, improved programmer productivity, faster evaluations, and quicker support resolution.

DataDirect Technologies' drivers give you the best combination of functionality, performance, reliability, scalability, and ease of use of any solution available today. We are the only vendor to offer a full suite of Type 4 drivers across all major databases and Type 3 architectures for those customers who need the special capabilities that come with that design. We continually compare ourselves to other driver vendors to ensure the technical superiority of our solutions.

A full-suite of drivers with JDBC 3.0 / 4.0 features and latest database enhancements

We offer a full suite of Type 4 JDBC drivers for all the major databases because we know most programmers have to live in a multiple database world, and that the frustrations of dealing with different drivers of varying quality and multiple support organizations can be large and costly.

Our drivers are built from a common architecture and all have similar implementations of the JDBC standard. Backwards compatibility is guaranteed with applications designed for older specifications and database versions. This makes testing and certifying our drivers easy. All of our drivers support JDBC 3.0 specification features that greatly increase developer productivity and make for more robust applications. Our drivers also support select JDBC 4.0 functionality. JDBC 3.0 features include:

• Savepoints - Savepoints allows programmers to create subunits of transactions that can be independently managed. This introduces transaction flexibility and allows programmers to create if/then/else situations which removes the "all or nothingness" of transactions.
• Retrieval of Parameter MetaData - This capability allows programmers to dynamically describe the data types associated with parameters in SQL Statements. The ability to do this makes parameter handling more consistent and efficient.
• Pooling Enhancements - JDBC 3.0 builds upon the initial implementation of connection pooling by adding the ability to transparently pool prepared statements and set properties for connection pooling like min/max, idle time, etc. This is one of the changes in the new specification that should greatly increase application performance.
• BLOB/CLOB Updates - JDBC 2.0 introduced the ability to work with BLOB/CLOB objects, but it was a read only capability. With JDBC 3.0, programmers have the ability to read and alter the contents of BLOB/CLOB objects. We even provide both read and write support for BLOB/CLOB data types for Sybase and MS SQL Server, databases that do not natively support these data types.
• Support for Multiple Open Results Sets – Allows you to keep and process multiple results sets from stored procedures.
• Retrieval of Auto Generated Keys – Facilitates automated identification of unique rows in a database.

Features for JDBC 4.0 include:

• Connection isValid – DataDirect has exposed the functionality to determine whether a connection is valid using a JDBC standard API. This functionality previously available as an optional proprietary method is a common operation performed by connection pool managers.
• Connection Client Info – DataDirect supports the ability to get and set client information using standard JDBC 4.0 APIs. This functionality previously available as proprietary APIs can be used to distinguish between connections in a pool that are typically created using the same user id and password. This information is necessary to determine which application is using a connection, provides the ability to identify the source of a run-away query, can be used to determine usage statistics and can be used to adjust the priority of work.
• Auto Load Driver – DataDirect drivers can be automatically loaded by the Java SE 6 VM. This important ease of development feature of the JDBC 4.0 specification eliminates the need to register the JDBC driver in the application.

We also ensure that our products are updated for new database versions and features so that our products are always current, and we continually seek to expand the coverage and features we offer. Recent updates include:

• A new MySQL driver, offering DataDirect quality, reliability, and interoperabiltiy for MySQL applications
• Support for Microsoft SQL Server 2005, Oracle 10g R2, and Sybase 15.
• Performance and scalability enhancements which make us the best performing suite of JDBC drivers using the SPECjAppServer2002 benchmark.
• JTA (Java Transaction API) support for all major databases.
• Operating System Authentication support for Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, DB2 and Sybase, while still remaining a pure Type 4 JDBC driver. This feature allows organizations to create a Single Sign-On environment that bolsters security, eliminates the need for users to log in separately for each application, and reduces the costs associated with managing user accounts.
• A new Performance Tuning Wizard that automatically generates connection properties so you can tune the driver based on your application characteristics.
• Improvements for fail-over support and load balancing to enhance our support of Oracle RAC, as well as provide this functionality to our entire suite of database drivers.

Advanced Security Features

Operating System Authentication (aka Single Sign-On/Kerberos)

All DataDirect Connect for JDBC drivers support OS authentication—SQL Server, Sybase, and DB2.

Kerberos-based authentication allows organizations to create a Single Sign-On environment that bolsters security, eliminates the need for users to log in separately for each application, and reduces the costs associated with managing user accounts. DataDirect's OS authentication features allow the JDBC driver to integrate seamlessly into that environment.

The following authentication features are supported:

• Delegated credentials – Provides the ability for the application to act on behalf of the user. For web-based applications, the application or web server can use the delegated credential that represents the user vs. the credential that represents the server administrator. This bolsters security because the application can base permissions on the actual end-user. In addition, the application audit trail can associate usage with the end-user vs. a generic system administrator ID.
• Comprehensive KDC support – Support for both Activity Directory and MIT.

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) Encryption Support

SSL is an industry-standard protocol for sending encrypted data over database connections. SSL secures the integrity of your data by encrypting information and providing client/server authentication. DataDirect Connect for JDBC drivers support SSL to protect critical data that is transmitted between the database and the application, data that could otherwise be compromised.

Unmatched customer support with live people!

Should you ever need help getting the most out of our drivers, our support team is available 24x7 with a live voice on the phone ready to answer questions about all databases. That's the kind of support you'll want to have when your application is ready to go into production.

Our drivers include tools for testing and debugging

Our JDBC drivers come with a software developer kit (SDK) that includes tools for testing and debugging JDBC applications: DataDirect Test for JDBC and DataDirect Spy for JDBC. These components are closed to work only with DataDirect Technologies' drivers. You will not get this comprehensive kit from any other driver vendor.

This kit is included with our drivers for use by customers who purchase their drivers directly from us. Customers who wish to embed our drivers in their own software should discuss licensing options for the components of the SDK with their account managers.

DataDirect Test for JDBC

DataDirect Test is a graphical, menu-driven program that helps developers debug JDBC applications. It works by displaying the results of all JDBC function calls with sample Java JDBC code (including comments). DataDirect Test makes troubleshooting easy, thereby shortening the application development cycle.

DataDirect Spy for JDBC

DataDirect Spy is used for tracing calls in running programs. This utility passes calls issued by an application to an underlying JDBC driver and logs detailed information about those calls. The results passed back from the database to the application are logged too.

Spy differs from Test in that Spy captures the transactions of an existing application, where as Test helps in debugging code during development.

We are the leading JDBC driver vendor

Our formula for success is to be the leader, not a follower, in providing the best technical data access solutions for all industry standards, always ahead of any competition. We've proven our position as an industry leader over and over again. Here are just a few examples of our JDBC leadership:

• Sun Microsystems came to DataDirect Technologies to get our help to write the original JDBC standard based on our experience with ODBC. Our strong relationship continues with Sun embedding our JDBC drivers in their products.
• We were the first vendor to ship commercial JDBC drivers, the first vendor to be J2EE 1.3 and 1.4 certified, and the first vendor to be certified under Sun's J2EE Compatibility Test Suite (CTS).

DataDirect Technologies is also very active in setting the direction for data connectivity standards across the industry through its participation in the following organizations.

• JDBC Expert Panel - DataDirect Technologies has been a member since the group's inception and continues to work evolving the JDBC standard.
• ANSI CLI Committee – DataDirect Technologies helped drive the effort to align the ANSI specification with the Open Group Specification.
• JSR 114 RowSet Expert Group – DataDirect Technologies is a charter member.
• SQL Access Group - DataDirect Technologies was a member of the team that developed the latest SQL CLI specification.

Our products have achieved broad industry acceptance

Our products are embedded by over 300 independent software vendors who trust our software and service to help make their products better (e.g., Sun Microsystems, IBM, and webMethods).

The major DBMS and application server companies are all also OEM customers of ours with many using our JDBC drivers.

Our relationships with the major database companies enable us to maintain frequent contact with their development and product management teams, providing early access to new database versions and insight into architecture modifications.