It is unnecessary and inefficient for each region to have a copy of the entire consolidated database. The remote schema uses the same table names, but only contains information relevant to one particular region. To achieve this configuration, the remote schema is designed as a subset of the consolidated database in the following way:

Each sales representative needs to keep information about the customers located in their region, as well as the products offered to all customers. However, a sales representative does not need information about customers in different regions, so this information is not synchronized to each regional office. This behavior is achieved by filtering rows based on a region identifier.

The next step is to choose the synchronization direction of each table. You should consider what information a remote database needs to read and what information a remote database needs to create, change, or remove. In this example, a region needs access to the list of products offered to customers, but never enters a new product into the system. This creates the restriction that products must always enter the system from the consolidated database at the central location. However, a sales representative needs to be able to record new account activations on a regular basis. These factors lead to the following synchronization directions for the tables:

Proceed to Lesson 2: Preparing the consolidated database.