With the cloud quickly becoming a conduit for an unprecedented supply of data, the importance of data accuracy, consistency, and privacy is growing. Things that may seem like a minor data error or glitch can have a major negative impact on sales, decision-making, and customer retention. However, sorting through data and syncing it with existing databases, then parsing it out on a regular basis — all while maintaining data integrity — can be tedious and costly. That’s why data synchronization has become one of the most valuable tools to manage data.
Data synchronization is the ongoing process of synchronizing data between two or more devices and updating changes automatically between them to maintain consistency within systems.
While the sheer quantity of data afforded by the cloud presents challenges, it also provides the perfect solution for big data. Today’s data solutions offer quick and easy tools to bypass monotonous tasks, resulting in data in harmony throughout the system.
Data synchronization ensures accurate, secure, compliant data and successful team and customer experiences. It assures congruence between each source of data and its different endpoints. As data comes in, it is cleaned, checked for errors, duplication, and consistency before being put to use. Local synchronization involves devices and computers that are next to each other, while remote synchronization takes place over a mobile network.
Data must always be consistent throughout the data record. If data is modified in any way, changes must upgrade through every system in real-time to avoid mistakes, prevent privacy breaches, and ensure that the most up-to-date data is the only information available. Data synchronization ensures that all records are consistent, all the time.
The importance of data synchronization grows in step with increased accessibility to cloud-based data as well as access to mobile devices. Mobile devices use data for basic operation as well as personal information for apps, websites, and email. Updates to information generated by the user as well as the end target must be constant and secure. This synchronization process requires clean, consistent data for product and service competence, but also for data governance issues like security and regulatory compliance.
Data conflicts can result in errors and low data quality, which consequently leads to a lack of trusted data down the line. With data synchronization properly implemented throughout a system, a business will see performance improvement in many areas, including:
Data accessibility and error resolution afford time savings, allowing emphasis to be put on important business development processes like marketing, new product development, and strategic decision-making. Virtually everyone benefits from clean, synced data.
There are a few types of data synchronization methods. Version control and file synchronization tools can make changes to more than one copy of a file at a time. The other two, distributed and mirror, have more specific uses.
Check out our Definitive Guide to Data Quality today
