There are two basic scheduling options for any data synchronization process:

1. Real-time synchronization involves immediate notification of other systems whenever a record is added, modified or deleted in one of the systems being synchronized. For example, with real-time synchronization the Luminate Online system would send a message to all client systems immediately whenever a person registered, updated their profile or made a donation online.
2. Batch synchronization involves a periodic exchange of all records, modified or deleted during a specific time window. For example, with batch synchronization the middleware application might make a nightly request for all records added, updated or deleted in the Luminate Online database during the previous day (midnight to midnight). As part of the same operation, the middleware application would also submit to Luminate Online all constituent records added, updated or deleted in the client system during that time.

Real-time synchronization can be difficult to set up and is prone to reliability problems, because it requires that each participating system be able to send messages to all others. If one system goes down or becomes unavailable due to network issues, the entire synchronization process may be thrown off.

Because of the logistic difficulties of implementing real-time synchronization, Luminate Online Web Services are designed for batch synchronization only. The middleware application orchestrates the entire synchronization operation, initiating all requests to both the Luminate Online system and to all participating client systems. If the Luminate Online or client system goes down or becomes unavailable for any reason, the middleware application can simply postpone or interrupt the synchronization for a particular time period without running the risk of data loss or corruption.