A method achieves data consistency in a shared storage accessible by a first and second machine. Compounds for use in methods of embodiments of the invention may include compounds of the formula in which the radicals are as defined, and their physiologically acceptable salts. The method further includes clustering the refinements into refinement clusters by partitioning the refinement nodes in the graph into proper subsets. The messaging interfaces support message transfer between the processing systems in the architectures to provide information exchange including billing exchanges, rating exchanges, and customer management exchanges.