System and method utilizing a shared cache to provide zero copy memory mapped database

Methods and systems for providing a plurality of applications with concurrent access to data are disclosed. One such method includes identifying attributes of an expected data set to be accessed concurrently by the applications, initializing a shared cache with a column data store configured to store the expected data set in columns, and creating a memory map for accessing a physical memory location in the shared cache. The method may also include mapping the applications' data access requests to the shared cache with the memory map. Only one instance of the expected data set is stored in memory, so each application is not required to create additional instances of the expected data set in the application's memory address space. Therefore, larger expected data sets may be entirely stored in memory without limiting the number of applications running concurrently.