Why Should Application Developers Care About Managed Code?

Code that runs within the CLR is called managed code. Code that runs in the native OS and not the CLR, such as client libraries, COM components, etc. is called unmanaged code. You can mix managed and unmanaged code within a single application.

Unlike 100% managed code, unmanaged code reaches outside the CLR, increasing complexity, reducing performance and opening potential security risks. While some vendors promote their .NET data providers as "built with managed code", they do not promote the fact that the data provider must call to the client libraries to make a connection to the database, introducing unmanaged code.

The following figure shows the difference between using a managed data provider that calls the client library and using a Wire Protocol managed data provider that connects to the DBMS with no intervening unmanaged code.

DataDirect Connect for .NET data provider uses Wire Protocol technology, eliminating the need to call client libraries, simplifying development and dramatically reducing configuration and support issues.

The built-in advantages of Wire Protocol technology gives DataDirect Technologies ADO.NET data providers a big advance over competing data providers. DataDirect ADO.NET data providers are built from 100% managed code.

To learn more about the importance of managed code, visit this link.