Is partial synchronisation possible between two databases on different servers? Imagine a scenario where you have a primary instance of a database and a secondary instance that is automatically synchronised - pretty much as with Availability Groups.
My question is whether I could add additional objects to the secondary instance - in particular a materialised (indexed) view - without needing that view to synchronise back to the primary.
Is this possible?
(&quot;Why?&quot;, I hear you ask? Because I don't want the performance hit of maintaining the view to impact the primary instance. It would be find for the secondary to use async-commit mode, if needed.)
The only built-in data synchronization technology that meets your requirements, I think, is Transactional Replication.
See the FAQ on replication:

How do I add or change indexes on publication and subscription databases?
Indexes can be added at the Publisher or Subscribers with no special considerations for replication (be aware that indexes can affect performance). CREATE INDEX and ALTER INDEX are not replicated, so if you add or change an index at, for example, the Publisher, you must make the same addition or change at the Subscriber if you want it reflected there.

This means you can have different objects (indexes, views, etc) on each replica.