1. A method comprising: associating a natural key-to-surrogate key mapping with a table of a database by at least one physical processor; and in response to an access to the database involving access to the table and specifying a natural key, using the database to translate the natural key to a surrogate key based at least in part on the mapping, by the at least one physical processor, wherein the access comprises a request specifying the natural key and being submitted to the database and using the database to translate the natural key to the surrogate key comprises using a compiler of the database to transform the request to replace the natural key with the surrogate key based at least in part on the mapping, wherein the table comprises a fact table, the request comprises a request for a query to the fact table, and wherein using the database to translate the natural key to the surrogate key comprises: using the compiler of the database to transform the query to join the fact table with a dimension table to evaluate at least one predicate against a natural key column that resides in the dimension table, based at least in part on a first mapping rule associated with the fact table and a second mapping rule associated with the dimension table.