Data compare replacing merge replication?

[Peter jones]

Hi,
We want to use sql azure but need merge replication with one publisher and about 10 subscribers. Each subscriber would merge twice a day at most and there is no way of scheduling when a subscriber synchronises.

Is data compare a posible solution for our requirements?

Tia peter

[james.billings]

Thanks for your post.

Merge replication isn't something that Data Compare is really designed for unfortunately, as it's a one way process. In addition, Data Compare works by scanning through the whole DB to establish the changes required, then building a syncscript. When working with Azure and running it regularly, this is likely to add up to quite a cost where data transfers are concerned.

Azure does have its own Data Sync tool now (see here which may be worth looking into. I believe it adds triggers to the databases at each end and thus works more like traditional replication than a "scheduled sync".

Hope that helps!