Sun Microsystems used the ODBC system as the basis for their own open standard, Java Database Connectivity (JDBC). In most ways, JDBC can be considered a version of ODBC for the programming language Java instead of C. JDBC-to-ODBC "bridges" allow Java-based programs to access data sources through ODBC drivers on platforms lacking a native JDBC driver, although these are now relatively rare. Inversely, ODBC-to-JDBC bridges allow C-based programs to access data sources through JDBC drivers on platforms or from databases lacking suitable ODBC drivers.