Data access is complicated enough. Any technique that enables us to write the code once, and then forget about it, is useful.

Encapsulation is particularly helpful in the case of ODBC, due to the data standard's inherent limitations. Sooner or later, many organizations that developed to the ODBC standard will need to migrate to a server-based standard such as Oracle or SQL Server. This is where encapsulation really shows its stripes, since only the data access layer need be rewritten! This can reduce the cost of database migration by a significant margin, thoroughly pleasing everybody but HotQuant's competitors.

As always, HotQuant welcomes any comments or suggestions. E-mail is best; we make every effort to respond to all inquiries.