Direct connection communication to MS SQL DB without ODBC

Hi,

Is there a way to communicate with MSSQL directly avoiding the ODBC. I have been advised to use MSSQL Native Client which uses ODBC, OLE and ADO techniques. But is there a direct communication possible.

I came across the following statements which said it was a direct way to communicate with the DB.
db->setDatabaseName("Driver={SQL Server Native Client 11.0};Server=<ip/host>;Database=;Uid=;Pwd=;")

I am not sure what the above statements represent.
I am really new to C++ programming and Database communication and I need to write a C++ driver to communicate with MS SQL database.

Can someone please help me or point me in a direction in how I can achieve this.

Thanks