Abstract: In one embodiment, a method for collecting updates for a plurality of objects over a cloud data network includes: determining a set of remote devices known to have updates for a selected object, wherein each of said remote devices maintains a set of locally updated objects that includes the selected object; and downloading the updates for the selected object from said set of remote devices. Where said downloading the updates for the selected object results in a name conflict, the method further includes resolving said name conflict, wherein said resolving includes selecting said selected object as a target and said existing object as an alias having a pointer relationship to the target; and merging all meta-data of the alias object into the target.