Glossary

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Glossary / Evaluation and implementation guide

Change Data Capture

Change Data Capture (CDC) is an integration technique that detects and streams every change made in a source system, including inserts, updates, and deletes, rather than polling for new records on a schedule.

For buyers, CDC matters when downstream systems must stay closely aligned with the source: it captures edits and deletions that simple periodic syncs miss, and it can reduce load on the source because changes are read once instead of re-querying full datasets.

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A practical example

Example: a contact changes their phone number and later merges into another record in your CRM.

A CDC-based pipeline propagates both the field update and the merge downstream, whereas a nightly export might only catch records created that day.

What to evaluate before investing

  • Ask whether the vendor offers CDC for your specific source systems or only scheduled polling.
  • Confirm whether deletes and record merges are captured or only field updates.
  • Check how CDC handles schema changes in the source, such as a new custom field.

Limitations and tradeoffs

CDC typically requires deeper access to the source system, such as database logs or premium API tiers, which can raise cost and access requirements compared with simpler polling integrations.

Plan your next step with MeshLine

Connect this decision to your automation, organic marketing and customer lifecycle management. In a MeshLine demo, discuss your existing tools, the scope you need and how to measure the result.

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