Databases are rapidly becoming excellent stores for XML data-either natively or using extensions to SQL. Similarly, XQuery support is expanding, providing a common query mechanism for XML and relational data. For those scenarios where the structure of the XML does not allow for the use of relational databases, native XML databases are available to provide data storage. The integration of databases and XML will continue, and tool support should improve-helping developers access the best features of XML and databases in their applications.