ADO.NET in the next release of Visual Studio® code-named "Orcas" features the new Entity Framework. It allows developers to focus on data through an object model instead of through a logical/relational data model. The Entity Framework helps abstract the logical data schema into a conceptual model and allows for multiple ways to interact with the conceptual model through Object Services and a new data provider called EntityClient. This month’s column discusses what the Entity Framework is, how it fits into an application, and how it can be designed and programmed against.