Disclosed are a queue management system and a method of managing a queue. This system and method are for use with a parallel processing system including a plurality of clients and a plurality of processors. The clients receive messages and transmit the messages to a shared queue for storage, and the processors retrieve messages from the shared queue and process said messages. The queue management system includes a mirror queue for maintaining a copy of each message transmitted to the shared queue by one of the clients; and the queue management system stores to the mirror queue, a copy of each message transmitted to the shared queue by that one of the clients. The mirror queue provides the system with continuity in case of an outage of the shared queue. In the event of such an outage, each instance of an application can simply discontinue using the shared queue and process requests from the mirror queue. The mirror queue is used until the shared queue is once again available. Preferably, the copy of each message transmitted to the mirror queue is provided with a reference, such as a poiner, to the location of the message on the shared queue.