{"id":1279,"date":"2015-08-26T06:36:58","date_gmt":"2015-08-26T06:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kovair.com\/blog\/?p=1279"},"modified":"2025-12-08T11:53:06","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T11:53:06","slug":"syncing-and-linking-trade-offs-how-kovair-manages-both","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kovair.com\/blogs\/syncing-and-linking-trade-offs-how-kovair-manages-both\/","title":{"rendered":"Syncing and Linking Trade-offs \u2013 How Kovair Manages Both"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to the International Data Corporation – IDC report, there will be around $270 billion spending on ICT products and services in 2015. Much of this spending is directed towards the maintenance of software. According to the Lehman\u2019s Law on Software Quality Evolution, quality of a system declines unless it is rigorously maintained.<\/p>\n

In order to develop and maintain software efficiently, it is important that each phase like Requirements gathering, Coding, Testing and Defect tracking are carried out in perfect synchronization between tools. Ensuring synchronization necessitates that all stakeholders and toolsets involved in various phases of the development are brought together or \u2018Integrated\u2019.<\/p>\n

One of the many ways to achieve this\u00a0is data synchronization or data \u2018Syncing\u2019 which means replication of data from source tool to target tool. The other means of bridging information gaps between stakeholders is \u2018Linking\u2019. Unlike \u2018Syncing\u2019 there is no data replication involved. In \u2018Linking\u2019, the concepts of data federation and data virtualization are employed in order to achieve inter-tool data visibility. Here the data from other tools are made visible to users by means of virtual links. Stakeholders can follow the links to view or modify data in any other tool from their own tool environment.<\/p>\n

\"Data<\/p>\n

Fig: Bi-directional Data Syncing between a Pair of Tools<\/strong><\/p>\n

Syncing \u2013 How it helps<\/h2>\n
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  1. Synchronization of data between tools helps geographically distributed teams to have a real-time status and information of what other team members are doing. It reduces communication time that is otherwise spent on series of email chains and long calls. This results in improved team productivity and product quality.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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    1. An accuracy in auditing increases when data between tools are integrated and visible through a single interface. The managers do not need to hop around tools and resources to know the predictability of a release, thus making the process more accurate and trustworthy.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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      1. As goes the saying \u201cChange is the only constant factor in life\u201d, change requests have also become an integral part of the software development process today. This makes the decision for implementation tougher in the absence of proper impact analysis. For a proper impact analysis, the stakeholders of different stages of development need to be abreast of the changes in real time which can be facilitated by \u2018Syncing\u2019.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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        1. The presence of multiple tools for multiple purposes often becomes a major hindrance in implementing an efficient workflow. Let us take an example here. Every time a code is checked in to SVN \u2013 a source code repository tool, a build needs to be triggered in Hudson. In absence of \u2018Syncing\u2019 between tools and the facility to design workflow across tools, this process has to happen manually which is a very counter-productive activity.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          \"Data<\/p>\n

          Fig: Data 1 in Tool A Linked to Tool B<\/strong><\/p>\n

          Challenges of syncing \u2013 An introduction to linking<\/h2>\n

          Further to the discussions above, it seems \u2018Syncing\u2019 is the ultimate solution to achieve an integrated tool set. However, some of its constraints cannot be ignored as well.<\/p>\n

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          1. Some of the tools especially the IDE\u2019s like Eclipse, Visual Studio do not have their own storage. Replicating data or Syncing of Data doesn\u2019t quite work in such cases.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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            1. It is often required that the data from multiple tools be visible from inside the tools without having to store the hundreds or thousands of data in the respective tools. Such a feat can only be accomplished with Linking.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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              1. Getting real-time updates on data syncing status is also a critical challenge. For any of the data getting changed in one tool, the bulk data replicated across multiple tool instances needs to be updated concurrently. Though handled efficiently by the synchronization capability of Kovair Omnibus, propagating such updates to the \u2018n\u2019 number of tools in real time can become a bit time consuming at times.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                The solution to these problems lies in \u2018Linking\u2019 of data. It involves creating virtual links between data of two tools. This enables stakeholders in one tool to have real-time visibility into the data of another tool by using virtual or federated links of data. With \u2018Linking\u2019, data residing in a particular tool can be viewed or modified by a user from another tool environment. This approach has its own advantages over syncing.<\/p>\n

                \r\n

                Secure and Error Free Data Migration with Zero Data Loss<\/h2>\r\n
                Live Product Demo by our Experts<\/div>\r\n
                \r\n Get Demo<\/a>\r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n

                Advantages of Linking<\/h2>\n
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                1. No storage is required in any of the tools other than the tool where the data is originating from. It also has its disadvantages if you want some reporting and analytics, it is not possible!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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                  1. Virtual links give visibility into the data as they are residing in the other tools, from one tool. This proves to be a beneficial solution for the IDE\u2019s which do not have their storage. A developer working in such an IDE is thus spared from having to move in between the different tools to get the glimpse of data residing in the other tools.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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                    1. The \u2018Data Federation Linking\u2019 mechanism is particularly helpful in SCM tool integration. These links enable users to access code file contents directly from a tool without having to connect to the SCM tool server or to maintain a local copy of the source file.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

                      \"Data<\/p>\n

                      Fig: Data 2 in Tool B Linked to Tool A<\/strong><\/p>\n

                      What Linking fails to achieve<\/h2>\n