Somehow I totally missed this, but in october 2017 Microsoft did a complete U-turn on deprecating OleDB database connectivity.  They  have even released new OleDB providers for MS Sql Server which will be maintained and updated with the most recent server features.   https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlnativeclient/2017/10/06/announcing-the-new-release-of-ole-db-driver-for-sql-server/ https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/connect/oledb/oledb-driver-for-sql-server?view=sql-server-2017