The present disclosure provides techniques and solutions for executing requests for database operations involving a remote data source in a system that includes an anchor node and one or more non-anchor nodes. A first request for one or more database operations is received, where at least a first database operation includes a data request for a remote data object. It is determined that the first database operation is not an insert, delete, or update operation, and therefore is assignable to the anchor node or one of the non-anchor nodes. The first database operation is assigned to a non-anchor node for execution. In a particular implementation, for a particular set of requests for a database operation, once an insert, delete, or update operation is received for the remote data object, subsequent operations for the remote data object in the set of requests are assigned to the anchor node for execution.