Microsoft Access is used to make databases.
When reviewing Microsoft Access in the real world, it should be understood how it is used with other products. An all-Access solution may have Microsoft Access Forms and Reports managing Microsoft Access tables. However, Microsoft Access may be used only as the 'front-end', using another product for the 'back-end' tables, such as Microsoft SQL Server and non-Microsoft products such as Oracle and Sybase. Similarly, some applications will only use the Microsoft Access tables and use another product as a front-end, such as Visual Basic or ASP.NET. Microsoft Access may be only part of the solution in more complex applications, where it may be integrated with other technologies such as Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook or ActiveX Data Objects.
Access tables support a variety of standard field types, indices, and referential integrity. Access also includes a query interface, forms to display and enter data, and reports for printing. The underlying Jet database, which contains these objects, is multiuser-aware and handles record-locking and referential integrity including cascading updates and deletes.