Patent ID: 7130856

Claim:
A data storage system, comprising: a relational data store component for storing data pertaining to entities; a plurality of maps between entities and a location of columns in the relational data store component that store the data of the entities; a data access system configured to receive requests to perform an operation on data of at least one entity; a map provider receiving an identifier from the data access system, the map provider providing information pertaining to which map to use to process the request; wherein the plurality of entities are organized in a child/parent hierarchy; wherein each entity has a unique identifiable position with the child/parent hiearchy; wherein the identifier is a function of the child/parent hierarchy; wherein the data of the relational store component are organized in tables; wherein entities are grouped into classes, each class having similarly structured data and associated with a table; and wherein at least two classes have the same name, but are located in different positions in the child/parent hierarchy.