Abstract: A system, method and article of manufacture are provided for accessing data independent of the particular manner in which the data is physically represented. In one embodiment, a plurality of data repository abstractions provide different logical views of the same underlying data repository. The plurality of data repository abstractions may each be associated with different users, thereby exposing a different set of data to each user. A runtime component performs translation of abstract queries into a form that can be used against a particular physical data representation.