A binary standard that enables objects to interact with other objects, regardless of the programming language that each object was written in.
A consumer is any application or tool that calls to a data source or the interfaces of provider to access data. See provider.
The Oracle client/server communication software that offers transparent operation to Oracle tools or databases over any type of network protocol and operating system.
A provider is an interface or set of components that provides data to a consumer. As the term is used with Oracle Provider for OLE DB, a data provider is a set of COM components that transfer data from a data source to a consumer, by placing the data in a tabular format when called for. See consumer.