Synchronizing bookmarks between browsers and endpoints is a surprisingly long standing and thorny issue within enterprise IT. You'd think it would be simple but every profile synchronization service I've ever encountered has had severe failure scenarios. I guess it makes sense when you think of it as a CAP theorem problem.
One solution kept the bookmarks in an internal DB and would create them on an endpoint (eg a non-persistent virtual desktop) at sign-in. Sometimes this failed due to whatever reason and you had no bookmarks for that session. Oh well.
But wait the solution also synced bookmarks when the browser process was closed. That sync didn't fail so now all your bookmarks were overwritten with a blank bookmarks file and were thus erased from the DB too! Now you got to call support and have them revert your bookmarks to the previous version. But thankfully the service eventually included a self-service portal where you could revert them yourself.
Heaven forbid you have two active endpoints. Last write wins? Maybe!
> every profile synchronization service I've ever encountered has had severe failure scenarios. I guess it makes sense when you think of it as a CAP theorem problem
I don't think CAP theorem is particularly relevant in this scenario. Sounds more like they were doing an overly basic "just overwrite with the current state" instead of sending individual commands, e.g. "create this bookmark".
The reason is likely a procurement problem. Anything that's "enterprise" and calls things "endpoints" is off to a bad start in my book.
One solution kept the bookmarks in an internal DB and would create them on an endpoint (eg a non-persistent virtual desktop) at sign-in. Sometimes this failed due to whatever reason and you had no bookmarks for that session. Oh well.
But wait the solution also synced bookmarks when the browser process was closed. That sync didn't fail so now all your bookmarks were overwritten with a blank bookmarks file and were thus erased from the DB too! Now you got to call support and have them revert your bookmarks to the previous version. But thankfully the service eventually included a self-service portal where you could revert them yourself.
Heaven forbid you have two active endpoints. Last write wins? Maybe!