In one embodiment, the present invention includes a computer-implemented method comprising storing data in an application using an application custom data type and application custom data structure. The data is stored in a database using the application custom data type and the application custom data structure. In one embodiment, a request is sent to access the data from the application to the database. The data is retrieved from the database in response to the request in the application custom data type and the application custom data structure. In one embodiment, the data is sent from the database to a shared memory in the application custom data type and the application custom data structure and the data is retrieved by the application from the shared memory in the application custom data type and the application custom data structure.