6. A method for performing queries on stored data in a Hadoop™ distributed computing cluster system, the method comprising: configuring a plurality of data nodes forming a peer-to-peer network for the queries received from a client, each data node of the plurality of data nodes functioning as a peer in the peer-to-peer network and being capable of interacting with components of the Hadoop™ cluster, each peer having an instance of a query engine running in memory; and configuring each instance of the query engine to include: a query planner that parses a query from the client and selectively creates query fragments based on an availability of converted data at the data node, the converted data corresponding to data associated with the query, wherein the converted data is the data associated with the query converted from an original format into a target format that is specified by a schema, and wherein the query is processed by whichever data node that receives the query; a query coordinator that distributes the query fragments among the plurality of data nodes; and a query execution engine that: transforms whichever local data that corresponds to a format for which the query fragments are created into in-memory tuples based on the schema; and executes the query fragments on the in-memory tuples to obtain intermediate results from other data nodes that receive the query fragments and to aggregate the intermediate results for the client.
9. The method of claim 6 , wherein, when the converted data is available, the query fragments are created for the target format.