CuteChat implements what is commonly known as a "Provider Model" design pattern—which will be used throughout the ASP.NET 2.0 framework. 

A "Provider Model" design pattern separates the application logic for the service from its underlying storage repository by introducing a "provider" software component in between.

This "provider" component exposes a standard interface to the service logic, but allows developers to implement the provider component on top of a repository of their choice.

By creating custom providers, developers can easily write their own data and business logic layers and simply plug it into existing user management system and reuse the same set of user management system.

The CuteChat 1.0 ships with seven pre-built providers...