1. A distributed database system within an industrial automation environment, comprising: a processor; a memory communicatively coupled to the processor, the memory having stored thereon computer-executable instructions configured to implement the system, including: a hierarchically structured data model representation of a plurality of controllers within an industrial automation system, the hierarchically structured data model representing data stored within the plurality of controllers as data objects located within a nested plant hierarchy; a reception component that receives and services a request for data that is located within at least one of the plurality of controllers, the reception component employs the hierarchically structured data model to collectively query the plurality of controllers as a single unit and to retrieve the requested data from the at least one of the plurality of controllers; and a directory structure that receives a pointer from one of the plurality of controllers indicating a location of a data object within the plant hierarchy, the directory structure maintaining the pointer to facilitate location and retrieval of the data object by the reception component.