In a method of the invention, a plurality of distributed service requestors input service requests, and the service requests are replicated to at least two of a plurality of request processing components that are located within a communication path between the requestors and the data store. The method also includes preventing any request processing component that has not successfully claimed the service request from processing the service request A first request processing component can claim responsibility for the service request; and the first request processing component can process its replica of the claimed service request, including accessing data within the data store. The method also includes preventing any of the plurality of request processing components from entering a duplicate claim to responsibility for the service request.