Patent ID: 7567992

Claim:
A processor-implemented method for managing a plurality of instances of an object model, comprising: establishing at least a first and a second instance of the object model in first and second memory arrangements of first and second data processing systems, respectively, each instance including a plurality of objects, wherein each object includes a first attribute that is a globally unique identifier (GUID) that identifies the object, a plurality of objects are associated with other objects of the plurality of objects, and for each association between a first and a second one of the plurality of objects, the first object includes a second attribute that is the GUID of the second object; wherein the first and second instances of the object model are replicated instances; establishing in the first memory arrangement a first version of a data set and establishing in the second memory arrangement a second version of the data set, each of the first and second versions including a plurality of GUID-pointer pairs, wherein for each of the pairs the GUID in the pair is one of the GUIDs of the plurality of objects and the pointer in the pair is a pointer to a memory location, the pointers in the first version referencing locations in the first memory arrangement and the pointers in the second version referencing locations in the second memory arrangement; wherein a first version of a third object of the plurality of objects is stored in a first memory location in the first memory arrangement; and in response to input of a second version of the third object, establishing the second version of the third object at a second memory location in the first memory arrangement that is different from the first location, and updating in the first version of the data set, the pointer of the GUID-pointer pair having the GUID that identifies the third object, to reference the second location.