Patent ID: 8429448

Claim:
A computer-implemented method, comprising: providing a first silo comprising a first cluster of one or more first computers configured to operate a first set of event-driven processing stages; providing a second silo comprising a second cluster of one or more second computers configured to operate a second set of event-driven processing stages, wherein the first and second sets of processing stages include substantially identical processing stages such that during normal operations of the first and second silos, transactions are allocated between the first and second silos; arranging at least one shared transaction cache between the first set of processing stages and the second set of processing stages of the respective first and second silos, wherein the at least one transaction cache stores one or more transactions designated for processing by respective processing stages of the first set or the second set, wherein each processing stage of the first and second sets of processing stages can obtain or receive one or more transactions from the at least one shared transaction cache for processing, wherein when a distressed processing stage in the first silo fails to process a first transaction designated for the distressed processing stage in a predefined amount of time, a non-distressed processing stage in the second silo obtains or receives the first transaction from the at least one shared transaction cache to process the first transaction on behalf of the distressed processing stage.