Entity Framework

Entity Framework  applications provide the following benefits: 

• Applications can work in terms of a more application-centric conceptual model, including types with inheritance, complex members, and relationships.
• Applications are freed from hard-coded dependencies on a particular data engine or storage schema.
• Mappings between the conceptual model and the storage-specific schema can change without changing the application code.
• Developers can work with a consistent application object model that can be mapped to various storage schemas, possibly implemented in different database management systems.
• Multiple conceptual models can be mapped to a single storage schema.
• Language-integrated query (LINQ) support provides compile-time syntax validation for queries against a conceptual model. 

fonte: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb399572.aspx