SyncML®: Synchronizing and Managing Your Mobile Data

Chapter 1. An Introduction to Data Synchronization

Mobile computing gives everybody access to their business or personal data everywhere, using devices like Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), smart phones, mobile phones, and laptops. An online connection to a corporate datastore might not always be possible, due to lack of network coverage, for example. Sometimes even if a connection is available, using it might not necessarily be the fastest and most cost-effective way for the application to operate. In situations such as these, data synchronization is a key technology to alleviate those shortcomings.

Data synchronization allows a consistent local “copy” of various kinds of data, from a central corporate datastore or a service provider datastore ...