Data is synchronized among multiple web servers, each of which is coupled
to a common data server. Each web server retrieves a scheduled activation
time from the data server. If the current time is prior to the scheduled
activation time, then each web server retrieves updated data from the
data server into a staging cache in the web server. At the scheduled
activation time, each web server copies data from its staging cache to an
active cache in the web server. If a new web server is added or an
existing web server is initiated, then data is copied from an active
cache in the data server to an active cache in the new or initialized web
server. The multiple web servers may be arranged to form a web farm.