A method for effecting synchronized operation of an application by a plurality of processing units, each processing unit may include an application processing section coupled with an own data store and a communication section coupled for communications with other processing units, includes: (a) operating each processing unit to store data relating to the operation of the application in its own data store; (b) recognizing a processing unit experiencing an anomalous event disruptive of data as a needy processing unit; and (c) when the anomalous event is past, operating the needy processing unit to effect access to all other data stores than its own data store to obtain updated data. The access may be effected by the needy processing unit operating as a subscriber unit communicating with respect to the other data store operating as a publisher unit.