1 ) A computer apparatus comprising: at least one processor; a memory coupled to the at least one processor; a database residing in the memory; a partitioned table in the database located on a plurality of partitions; a query governor file associated with the database having global governor data where the global governor data includes a plurality of global governor thresholds for the total resource cost to access the partitioned table on the plurality of partitions; and a first query governor residing in the memory and executed by the at least one processor, the first query governor determines whether a total cost to execute a query on the plurality of partitions exceeds a global governor threshold of the plurality of global governor thresholds, and allows access to the partitioned table if the total cost to execute the query on the plurality of partitions does not exceed the global governor threshold.