Abstract: An indexing system and method are provided for improving retrieval of data based on a query from a user from a database management system including a main computer and a memory coupled to the main computer for storing the data. The indexing system includes a parallel computer coupled to the main computer and a parallel disk array coupled to the parallel computer. The invention includes the steps of storing record based data in the memory of the database management system, storing a value based index of selected attributes related to the record based data on the parallel disk array, and determining whether the parallel computer can be used to execute a query to obtain at least a partial result to the query. If so, the query is sent to the parallel computer and the query is executed on the parallel computer to obtain at least a partial result.