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Though project glue was originally designed to meet the data requirements of course exchange, its ability to share master data between colleges makes Project Glue well suited to support the master data requirements of other systems such as Apply, Assess, MyPath, CID and others as well.

When does it make sense to have multiple copies of master data

Many different applications need fast access Master data, for instance, most applications need access to a full set of colleges and districts, and others need information about Terms and Majors.  Because this type of  data has a slow rate of change, the data is usually cached in the application and is refreshed many times a day.   For data like terms of majors, the system of record will always be the SIS of the hosting school or district, but if an application such as CCCApply can not rely on the availability of the SIS.  Therefore, it makes sense for the Master data to be duplicated in a data store that has high availability. That datastore could be Elasticache, where data is persisted for short amounts of time and when the system of record is not available, or could be stored in something more durable like RDS or DynamoDB.

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