Patent ID: 8126841

Claim:
A master data management system for managing a plurality of data items, comprising: a data store storing master data representing dynamic and variable data items, the data store including at least two concurrently stored copies of each data item in a homogeneous database, wherein each copy of a data item is operable to be used for a unique set of operations performed on the data item; an application programming interface operable to: receive a request from a consumer to perform an operation on a data item in the data store; and select, based on the received request, which copy of the at least two copies of the data item is to be used when performing the operation; and a data item transformer that is operable to: detect whether a change is made to a copy of a data item; and in response to detecting that a change has been made to a copy of a data item, update at least one other copy of the data item to reflect the change.