Oracle® ODBC Driver Comparison
This article compares the OCI version of the Easysoft ODBC-Oracle Driver with Oracle’s ODBC driver. It discusses the strengths both these OCI client-based products share and the advantages of using the Easysoft driver. At a glance:
| Oracle® Driver | Easysoft Driver |
|---|---|
| Uses the client libraries, giving your applications access to the latest Oracle® performance, scalability and security features. | Uses the client libraries, giving your applications access to the latest Oracle® performance, scalability and security features. |
| Microsoft Windows only, apart from the ODBC driver for Oracle® 10.2 and later. | Available on Linux, Unix (including Solaris, HP-UX and AIX) and Windows. |
| Compatible with unixODBC. | Compatible with unixODBC, a project currently led by Easysoft developer Nick Gorham that we have many years of experience in supporting. |
| Separate driver for each Oracle® version. | One driver supports multiple Oracle® versions. |
| Compatible with a particular version of the Oracle® client. To upgrade the client you also need to upgrade the ODBC driver. | Compatible with multiple versions of the Oracle® client. You can easily upgrade the Oracle® client without changing your ODBC driver. |
Using the Easysoft ODBC-Oracle Driver instead of the Oracle® ODBC driver still means that you can take advantage of Oracle’s expertise in accessing their database. Your applications will still use the Oracle® client software. It also means that you can take advantage of our expertise in developing ODBC drivers.
Oracle® Client Libraries
The Easysoft ODBC-Oracle Driver like Oracle’s ODBC driver uses the Oracle® client libraries to access Oracle®. Easysoft believe that the right way to access Oracle® is to use their database interface. When developing the Oracle® driver, we chose to use this method -- the one that Oracle® recommend -- so that we could concentrate on our driver’s functionality and you could benefit from the advantages that the client provides.
Latest Functionality
The client libraries support the entire Oracle® database feature set. The newest performance, scalability and security features appear first in the Oracle® client libraries. The functionality provided by the client libraries lets you build high performance, secure, scalable, and fault-tolerant applications.
Easysoft ensure that the Easysoft ODBC-Oracle Driver supports the latest version of the ODBC API. Because the Easysoft ODBC-Oracle Driver uses the client libraries and Easysoft track ODBC API developments, your applications can access the latest database features with the most current version of the ODBC API.
Improved Performance and Scalability
The Oracle® client libraries improve application performance and scalability through efficient usage of system memory and network connectivity. Using the client libraries, an application can service increasing numbers of users and requests without additional hardware investments.
Reliability
The client libraries are the backbone for the Oracle® database. Since the libraries are the standard way to access Oracle®, they are a very well tested interface.
Easysoft test the Easysoft ODBC-Oracle Driver with many different applications on many different platforms to ensure it is reliable and compatible with your application, programming language, and development environment on Linux, Unix and Windows.
ODBC Access to Oracle® from Linux, Unix and Windows
Oracle’s ODBC driver for versions of Oracle® earlier than 10.2 is only available for Windows platforms. The Easysoft ODBC-Oracle Driver is available on Linux and Unix as well as Windows. Supported Unix platforms include Solaris, HP-UX and AIX. You can therefore access Oracle® from OpenOffice.org, Perl, Python and PHP on Linux and Unix as well as from Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel on Windows.
unixODBC Support
Both the non-Windows Oracle® ODBC driver and the Easysoft ODBC-Oracle Driver are compatible with unixODBC, the Open Source Driver Manager. The Easysoft ODBC-Oracle Driver distribution contains unixODBC and can install and configure itself into unixODBC making it immediately available to all your ODBC applications.
The unixODBC project is currently led by Easysoft developer Nick Gorham. This means that there is a great deal of experience at Easysoft of unixODBC in general and of supporting the Easysoft ODBC-Oracle Driver running under unixODBC. It also means that if you find a problem in unixODBC, it is much easier for us to facilitate a fix.
One Driver Supports Multiple Oracle® Versions
Usually, the ODBC driver shipped with a particular version of the Oracle® client software is valid for that version of the client. This means that there is a separate version of the ODBC driver for each version of the Oracle® database. With the Easysoft ODBC-Oracle Driver, Oracle® 8.1.7 through to the latest Oracle® release are all supported in a single product. No upgrades are required. You can also use our driver with multiple versions of Oracle® at the same time.
