A fault tolerant database including one or more work stations (50-52) providing transaction data to be added to a database, including a primary network (100), a primary storage system (80) and a secondary storage system (90). A primary server (10) is coupled to the primary network (100) and receives the transaction data which is stored in the primary storage system. At time intervals, the primary server (10) transfers the transaction data from the primary storage system for storage in the secondary storage system. The primary server (10) defines a port for establishing connections to the work stations through the primary network (100). A secondary server (20) is coupled to the primary network (100) and receives transaction data from the primary server which is stored in the secondary storage system (90). The secondary server (20) also defines a port for establishing connections to the one or more work stations (50-52) through the primary network (100) in the event of a failure of the primary server (10).