Apparently you have to wait for the Clustered Vertx instance to be up. before trying to get the shared data..
VertxOptions vertxOptions = new VertxOptions().setClustered(true);
Vertx.clusteredVertx(vertxOptions, (AsyncResult<Vertx> result) -> {
if (result.succeeded()) {
clusteredVertx = result.result();
setUpEventBusMessageHandlers(clusteredVertx.eventBus());
System.out.println("Event Bus clustered : " + clusteredVertx.eventBus());
/* delibrate indentation*/ getSharedData(); // this is what solved my issue
} else {
System.out.println("Event Bus Clustering Failed: " + result.cause());
}
});