Opportunistic, priority-based object synchronization

Abstract

Mechanisms for synchronizing an object set with a remote data store are often performed at a particular frequency, e.g., once per hour or day. However, the objects of the object set may have different priorities, and it may be advantageous to synchronize higher-priority objects more often than regular-priority objects. The synchronization mechanisms may also differ (e.g., high-priority object synchronization may be direct and/or holistic, while regular-priority object synchronization may be differential, cached, and/or involving version and/or conflict resolution). Additionally, a resource-based threshold may be applied to the high-priority objects (e.g., a bandwidth cap) in order to reduce resource exhaustion, and high-priority objects that are not synchronized within the threshold may be synchronized with the regular-priority objects. These techniques may be particularly advantageous for synchronizing objects comprising an application state of applications of current or recent usage by a user, where application state 'staleness' is acutely visible to the user.