The invention advances the technology of virtual data warehousing: by allowing data to be organized in any of a number of virtual structures without the need for replication; by allowing the data to be accessed through the virtual structure at speeds in excess of those for conventional methods; by allowing data to be searched at significantly higher speeds, using a new indexing technology that enables tables to be indexed by data external to themselves, thus removing the need for complex joins; and by providing a workable security model for compartmenting access to both the data and the indices used to support searching.