We've recently been thinking about data synchronization options for our Smart Client application. While we don't see allowing a truly disconnected experience we would like to reduce the amount of data that we need to send between our application servers and our smart client. Since we're going to have deployment scenarios where our app server is across a big ocean from where our client sits we need to start thinking about how we can reduce the amount of data going across the wire.
This weekend I watched Steve Lasker's screencast on the upcoming sync framework that may be a part of Orcas. With all the talk surrounding LINQ, LINQ to Entities, and the ADO.NET Entity Framework I somehow missed any mention of the Sync component that is being worked on. In his demo Steve shows a simple demonstration of the various scenarios that the Sync framework supports and briefly talks about how SQL Server Compact Edition fits into the equation. I'm concerned about the tight coupling the the sync framework appears to have on DataSets as our architecture doesn't exactly include anything DataSet related. Regardless, it seems like there is some interesting developments happening in the Occasionally Connected space now that SQL Server Compact Edition is getting closer to release.