The API supports data replication, which allows you to store and maintain a local, separate copy of your organization’s pertinent Salesforce.com data for specialized uses, such as data warehousing, data mining, custom reporting, analytics, and integration with other applications. Data replication provides you with local control and the ability to run large or ad hoc analytical queries across the entire data set without transmitting all that data across the network.
Use the topics in this section to better understand the best practices for data replication.