1. A system comprising: a processor-addressable physical memory; and a processor in communication with said processor-addressable physical memory and configured to execute an application operating environment and to allocate an operating environment memory to said application operating environment, said operating environment memory corresponding to a physical memory and said application operating environment configured to: maintain a database configured to store one or more objects in a database image memory within said operating environment memory, the database image memory process-isolated from applications executed by the application operating environment; execute a first application in a first application memory within said operating environment memory, said first application memory process-isolated from said database image memory; upon instantiation of a database object by the first application, allocate memory in said database image memory for said database object, said database in said database image memory providing master storage for said database object; upon an instruction to obtain said database object by code of said first application, provide to said first application a reference to said database object; upon an access operation on an instance attribute or method of said database object by said first application, provide to said first application a processor-addressable memory address in said database image memory and provide direct access by said first application to data of said database object using said processor-addressable memory address; provide said processor-addressable memory address to a first code segment in a first transactional scope, said first code segment configured to directly access and update said instance attribute of said database object using said processor-addressable memory address; provide said updated instance attribute to said first code segment in said first transactional scope after said update; commit said updated instance attribute responsive to said first code segment closing said first transactional scope provide an unmodified value of said instance attribute to said second code segment in a second transactional scope in said application operating environment before said commit; and provide said updated value of said instance attribute to a third code segment in a third transactional scope in said application operating environment, said third transactional scope initiated after said commit.