Microsoft: Sync Framework isn't Google Gears

Those providers, as well as any that Microsoft crafts in the future or others built by developers, are completely reusable, Carrabino said. "Outlook's offline synchronization with Exchange -- where you're working with mail offline when you jump on a plane, but then sync and pull new mail when you land -- is complicated. To add that kind of functionality [to other applications] requires a lot of work for a development team.

"Sync Framework can build Outlook-like functionality, you put it on the server, and you're good to go."

The framework, stressed Carrabino, is data agnostic, protocol agnostic and device agnostic, which is one reason why Microsoft is confident that developers will take to it in enough numbers to create a self-sustaining ecosystem. "What's cool about the common framework is that the more it's used, the easier it will be to create sync applications. Independent software vendors, for example, will be able to tell their users that their data can follow them wherever they go.

"Just add sync, that's our motto."

CTP1 of the Sync Framework can be downloaded from the Microsoft Web site.

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