Push data from external source

[gukkes]

I'm new to VirtueMart and I'm exploring it to see whether it would be possible to externally manage and push/pull data from another process into the VM database.  This would typically be the Category Tree, Products and their availability.  I would also like to externally handle the Orders and foresee some process to remove Orders that were processed in some other backend (process).

For the synchronization I would rely on XML file over FTP (cron) or REST Services.

Would it suffice to just respect the database model, or can you spot some pitfalls in this scenario?

All your ideas are more than welcome.

Thank you in advance.