ODBC ROUTER is superior to SQLXML in the same way that Windows File Sharing is superior to WebDAV. Under SQLXML, all database queries (and result sets) must be encoded into documents, transferred across the network as text files and then decoded back into binary form before any processing can begin. Users may experience significant delays while overall server capacity is reduced through the introduction of a complete web browser, web server and document parser into the database transaction mix. Thus, SQLXML is mainly appropriate for so-called next-generation "web-services applications" where existing software and hardware are being discarded in favor of new systems designed to support the increased overhead and where the application's clients and servers are typically located in different enterprises. SQLXML is presently only compatible with the very latest releases of two or three high-end database servers and is not yet standardized between vendors (read, very expensive to support, especially in the event of a merger or acquisition). Because SQLXML requires extensive systems analysis for efficient deployment, it's total cost today exceeds that of ODBC Router by three to four orders of magnitude.