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Syncbase is a storage system for developers that makes it easy to synchronize app data between devices. It works even when devices are not connected to the Internet.

Why use Syncbase?

• Synchronization between one user's devices is trivial to configure; multiple users can synchronize specific data too
  • Low latency synchronization enables many apps to use storage for asynchronous communication
• Internet connection not required
  • Local storage still works when not connected to the internet
  • Synchronization protocol is peer-to-peer and works just as well over local WiFi or Bluetooth as the internet
• Conflict resolution system merges data when devices have been working offline
• Unified storage model handles both structured data and blobs
  • Structured databases are easy to use and queryable
  • Blob caching policies work well on resource-limited devices
• Powerful management tools
  • Leverages the Vanadium namespace and security system
  • Open source reference implementation of Syncbase for developers who want tight control over the data

The initial version of Syncbase is ready for testing and evaluation by early adopters - it is suitable for prototyping, but not for production applications.

This document presents an overview of the system. It is very light on implementation details. Subsequent docs will contain those details.

Background

There are many storage systems that synchronize data between mobile devices, but most such systems are cloud-centric rather than peer-to-peer, and the few that are peer-to-peer typically focus on files rather than structured storage. In addition, very few systems have the fine-grained access control or powerful, configurable conflict resolution we want. In summary, we're trying to solve a bunch of problems simultaneously whereas those other systems each solve a subset of those problems.