As Drupal grows and starts being used in network of sites, the demand to share and consume content, generic data and configuration becomes a real need. When such sites start being built is common to hear from clients the need to share data in one way or another between the sites.

Synchronizing data between systems is a traditionally hard problem to solve in information systems. Drupal offers some standards solutions and helpers but its flexibility and heterogeneity makes it harder to find a common solution.

In this session we will explore what are the standard common ways to achieve content sharing and data federation in Drupal based in several real world implementations:

- Different models can be defined to support the flow of information. Information can be stored in common hubs that produce and consume information from the whole network or the information can be exchanged directly by the different sites. Different technologies can be used to support the common hubs and the integration with Drupal.
Several factors influence what is the right solution, we will look to the most fundamental ones and provide several examples of implementations where different models were selected. The right solution can vary from a very simple feed consumed in real time by the different sites to a fully fledge service bus solution .

- Different Drupal modules can be used to guarantee that data is stored, synchronized and refresh at the right intervals. Deploy, feeds, services, migrate are typical actors on the puzzle. We will look how they can play together to guarantee that the selected solution is able to federate accordingly either content (typically entities like nodes but associated resources) or other shared resources like users, profiles, permissions and configurations.

We will base our presentation in typical cases that we have worked in the past directly with our clients.