Techniques for sharing persistently stored query results between multiple users

A method of managing access to query results, comprising:

• generating a plurality of persistent data objects, wherein generating comprises, for each persistent data object;
• receiving a query result comprising a dataset obtained from one or more databases in response to execution of a query against the one or more databases;
• creating security information, wherein the security information is configured for restricting access to the query result;
• associating the security information with the query result wherein the security information includes security settings for a plurality of potential requesting entities, the security settings defining access rights of each potential requesting entity to some or all of the query result;
• and
• storing the query result with the associated security information in the respective persistent data object;
• whereby each of the persistent data objects is detached from the one or more databases from which the respective query result was obtained so that the persistent data objects are independently accessible on the basis of the respective security information contained within the respective persistent data object;
• receiving, from a plurality of requesting entities, access requests to the plurality of persistent data objects;
• and
• for each request:
• granting access to a given requesting entity to at least a portion of a query result of a given persistent data object on the basis of the respective associated security information and an attribute of the given requesting entity;
• and
• if access cannot be granted on the basis of the respective associated security information and the attribute, initiating a late binding of external security information to the given persistent data object, wherein the external security information is retrieved from a data source external to the given persistent data object.