Obligatory Preamble:

Access can use data stored in Access/Jet, Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, or any ODBC-compliant data container. Skilled software developers and data architects use it to develop application software. Relatively unskilled programmers and non-programmer "power users" can use it to build simple applications. It supports some object-oriented techniques but falls short of being a fully object-oriented development tool. Access was also the name of a communications program from Microsoft, meant to compete with ProComm and other programs. This proved a failure and was dropped. Years later Microsoft reused the name for its database software.

Microsoft Office Access Uses:

Access is used by small businesses, within departments of large corporations, and by hobby programmers to create ad hoc customized desktop systems for handling the creation and manipulation of data. Access can be used as a database for basic web based applications hosted on Microsoft's Internet Information Services and utilizing Microsoft Active Server Pages ASP. Most typical web applications should use tools like ASP/Microsoft SQL Server or the LAMP stack.

Some professional application developers use Access for rapid application development, especially for the creation of prototypes and standalone applications that serve as tools for on-the-road salesmen. Access does not scale well if data access is via a network, so applications that are used by more than a handful of people tend to rely on Client-Server based solutions.

However, an Access "front end" (the forms, reports, queries and VB code) can be used against a host of database backends, including JET (file-based database engine, used in Access by default), Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and any other ODBC-compliant product.