Patent ID: 8364697

Claim:
A method comprising: generating, by a computing system comprising computer hardware and independent of query processing, a set of one or more HRBlobs organized according to a hierarchy, wherein an HRBlob comprises a collection of arranged data stored as a single entity that is constructed from a data store or from another HRBlob, and is configured to provide an answer to one or more specific query templates comprising a requested dimension and a requested measure; determining one or more respective properties associated with the one or more HRBlobs, the one or more respective properties comprising at least one of a measure, dimension, or level of arrangement; receiving one or more queries from a user; determining, by analyzing characteristics of the one or more queries and the one or more respective properties associated with the one or more HRBlobs, whether to service a given query of the one or more queries with the set of one or more HRBlobs or the data store; in response to determining to service the given query with the set of one or more HRBlobs, generating a response to the given query based on data from the set of one or more HRBlobs; in response to determining to service the given query with data in the data store, generating a response to the given query based on data from the data store; and continuously updating the set of one or more HRBlobs based on updates to the data store for future query processing.