A symbiotic computing system includes a plurality of symbiotic partners that are communicatively coupled with one another and each of which has a respective instance of a managed resource. One (or more) of the symbiotic partners receive input that affects a respective instance of the managed resource. Based upon the input, the symbiotic partner produces actions and transmits the actions to each other of the symbiotic partners. Upon receipt, each other of the symbiotic partners receives the actions and uses the actions to affect a respective instance of the managed resource to maintain coherency of the managed resource. The managed resource may include data entities such as data file, data bases, configuration files and source files and other types of resources such as video images, symbiotic relationship configurations and executables. Alterations made to an instance of the managed resource are made to each other instance of the managed resource to maintain coherency. When establishing a symbiotic relationship among symbiotic partners, instances of managed resources are first synchronized to ensure that a common starting point exists. Then, each instance of the managed resource is operated upon based upon the actions, typically via an application program. The actions are generated from user input at one of the symbiotic partners. Prior to their use, the actions may be converted to commands that are readily received by the application program to operate upon a managed resource. In a symmetric symbiotic relationship, actions may be created by both of a set of two symbiotic partners to affect the managed resources. In an asymmetric symbiotic relationship, only one of a set of two symbiotic partners may create actions that affect the managed resources.