Separation of Application Logic from Data Storage provides the freedom to mix and match "best of class" Desktop Productivity tools, Web Sevices, Application Development Tools, Applicaton Servers, Database Engines, Operating Systems, and Programming Languages

Feature Category		Features
Standards Compliance		JDBC 3.0 Datatype Enhancements support The DATALINK and BOOLEAN datatypes are additions to java.sql.Types. the DATALINK type provides access to external resources (URLs) from within a resultset using the new getURL() methods. While the BOOLEAN type is the logical equivalent of the BIT type with additional semantics, and is retrieved from a resultset using the getBoolean() method. JDBC Metadata Enhancements support The JDBC metadata APIs have been enhanced in JDBC 3.0, with the DatabaseMetaData interface now able to retrieve SQL type hierarchies. There is also a new ParameterMetaData interface to describe the types and properties of the parameters in PreparedStatement objects.