Microsoft Sync Framework provides a synchronization platform that caters to the following scenarios, in which data needs to be synchronized between multiple data sources:

• A number of users are collaborating and need to be able to access and update a set of data.
  
• A user wants to access and update his or her data in multiple locations – on a desktop, on a device, using a Web browser, etc.
  
• A user wants to download data from a server or service and take that data offline to a client store. The data can then be accessed and updated by the user even when not connected to the server or service.

Microsoft Sync Framework makes no assumptions about how data is stored or transmitted. Sync Framework places no restrictions on the type of data sources that can be synchronized, the protocol and network that are used to communicate with each data source , or the type of synchronization topology that is used. A data source can be synchronized with any other data source in any order; full peer-to-peer synchronization topologies are supported.

In order to cater to any data source, Sync Framework uses a provider model, with each sync provider being responsible for synchronizing a particular type of data source (or replica). Sync Framework is used to author providers and is used to perform the actual synchronization between the providers.

As well as enabling providers to be authored, Sync Framework includes several built-in providers:

• Database synchronization providers (referred to as Sync Services for ADO.NET in previous releases) are used to synchronize databases for offline and collaborative scenarios.
  
• File synchronization provider (referred to as Sync Services for File Systems in previous releases) is used to synchronize files and folders in an NTFS or FAT file system.
  
• Web feed synchronization components (referred to as Sync Services for FeedSync in previous releases) are used to synchronize RSS and Atom feeds with data in a local store.