1. A hosted service system for protecting sensitive data, the system comprising: a host system, wherein the host system includes: a key management system (KMS); a metadata service system (MSS), wherein the KMS and the MSS are communicatively coupled to each other; and a database management system (DBMS), the DBMS having: a database; a query pre-parser; and a results handler, wherein the query pre-parser and the results handler are communicatively coupled to the KMS and the MSS; and a processing application adapted to process at least some data received from a tenant system.