The present invention discloses a data access method, apparatus, and system, to resolve a technical problem that relatively good storage cannot be implemented in a current database. The method includes: receiving a data access request; determining an access type of a data table that is to be accessed according to the data access request, where the access type of the data table includes a physical data table type and an object data table type that is stored in a database in a form of metadata; and obtaining to-be-accessed data from the to-be-accessed data table according to the determined access type of the data table.