Method and system combining state replication and operational-replay synchronization

A system for synchronizing shared replicas of data structures for one or more computer devices, each one or more computer devices executing applications for accessing said shared data structures, said system comprising:

• means executing at a first computer device for evaluating a metric associated with performing a replica synchronization operation at that computer device according to first and second synchronization methods;
• means for selecting, at synchronization time, based on the evaluated metric, whether to use said first or second synchronization methods;
• and
• means for communicating a command to a second computer device to replicate a shared data structure based on said selected synchronization method.

A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for synchronizing replicas of shared data structures associated with one or more computer systems, said program storage device executing instructions for performing method steps of:

• evaluating a metric for performing a replica synchronization operation on a first computer system according to a first synchronization method;
• evaluating the metric for performing a replica synchronization operation on said first computer system according to a second synchronization method;
• and,
• selecting, at synchronization time, based on the evaluated metric, whether to use said first or second synchronization methods, and communicating a command to a second computer system to replicate a shared data structure based on said selected synchronization method.