Patent ID: 7320006

Claim:
A method for responding to requests for data in a plurality of database formats received from one or more clients, comprising: accepting three or more requests for data, wherein one or more of the data requests is in a sequential access data format, one or more of the data requests is in a direct access data format, and one or more of the data requests is in relational data format; and for each of the accepted data requests: assessing a format of the data request, wherein the assessed format comprises a sequential access data format, a direct access data format, or a relational data format, if the assessed format is the sequential access data format or the direct access data format, translating the data request into the relational data format and sending the translated data request for data request processing; if the assessed format is the relational data format, sending the data request directly for data request processing; processing the data request in a relational database architecture to produce a first data request result, wherein the data request is processed regardless of the assessed format of the data request; if the assessed format is the sequential access data format or the direct access data format, translating the first data request result from the relational data format to the assessed format of the data request; and returning a second data request result to the data request to one or more of the clients, wherein the second data request result is returned in the assessed format of the data request, wherein if the assessed format is the sequential access data format or the direct access data format, the second data request result is the translated first data request result, wherein if the assessed format is the relational data format, the second data request result is the same as the first data request result.