A method, comprising: providing a process control system configured for running a process comprising a plurality of controller platforms including first type controllers (211, 212) having a first hardware architecture and at least one second type controller having a second hardware architecture different from the first type controllers (211, 212) coupled to one another by a redundancy network (225, 235) for providing a controller pool (210, 260), and primary application modules 'AMs' (231, 232) coupled to the plurality controller platforms by a plant-wide network, wherein the plurality of controller platforms are coupled by an input/output 'I/O' mesh network to I/O devices to provide an I/O pool coupled to field devices coupled to processing equipment, characterized in that the method comprises: translating, by the first type of controllers, states and values from the at least one of the primary AMs (231, 232) into a hardware architecture independent format information; transferring the states and the values from the at least one of the primary AMs (231, 232) running on one of the first type controllers (211, 212) to a memory accessible by the second type controller to store a backup AM; wherein the second type controller comprises an emulation layer for emulating the first hardware architecture by performing a translation so that the state and data information from the primary AM (231, 232) received in the memory accessible by the second type controller remains in a data format compatible with the first type controller (211, 212); and wherein the transferring comprises sending the hardware architecture independent format information to the memory accessible by the second type controller, to allow synchronization of the second type controller and the first type controller (211, 212) and before the switching the method further comprising the second type controller translating the hardware architecture independent data format information into an instruction set that is compatible with the second hardware architecture, thereby extending synchronization to the second type controller, and switching to utilize the second type controller by deploying the backup AM as an active controller while continuing to run the process, using the redundancy network (225, 235), wherein the state and data of the second type controller and the first type controller (211, 212) are synchronized so that the second type controller is ready to take over as the active controller upon failure of the first type controllers. translating, by the first type of controllers, states and values from the at least one of the primary AMs (231, 232) into a hardware architecture independent format information; transferring the states and the values from the at least one of the primary AMs (231, 232) running on one of the first type controllers (211, 212) to a memory accessible by the second type controller to store a backup AM; wherein the second type controller comprises an emulation layer for emulating the first hardware architecture by performing a translation so that the state and data information from the primary AM (231, 232) received in the memory accessible by the second type controller remains in a data format compatible with the first type controller (211, 212); and wherein the transferring comprises sending the hardware architecture independent format information to the memory accessible by the second type controller, to allow synchronization of the second type controller and the first type controller (211, 212) and before the switching the method further comprising the second type controller translating the hardware architecture independent data format information into an instruction set that is compatible with the second hardware architecture, thereby extending synchronization to the second type controller, and switching to utilize the second type controller by deploying the backup AM as an active controller while continuing to run the process, using the redundancy network (225, 235), wherein the state and data of the second type controller and the first type controller (211, 212) are synchronized so that the second type controller is ready to take over as the active controller upon failure of the first type controllers.