Techniques are described herein for distributing distinct portions of a database object across volatile memories of selected nodes of a plurality of nodes in a clustered database system. The techniques involve storing a unit-to-service mapping that associates a unit (a database object or portion thereof) to one or more database services. The one or more database services are mapped to one or more nodes. The nodes to which a service is mapped may include nodes in disjoint database systems, so long as those database systems have access to a replica of the unit. The database object is treated as in-memory enabled by nodes that are associated with the service, and are treated as not in-memory enabled by nodes that are not associated with the service.