Categorical Management of Multi-Model Data

In this vision paper, we introduce an idea of a framework that would enable us to model, represent, and manage multi-model data in a unified and abstract way. Its core idea exploits constructs provided by category theory, which is sufficiently general but still simple enough to cover any of the logical data models used in contemporary databases. Focusing on promising features and taking into account mature and verified principles, we overview the key parts of the framework and outline open questions and research directions that need to be further investigated. The ultimate objective is to pursue the idea of a self-tuning system that would permit us to collapse the traditionally understood conceptual and logical layers into just a single model allowing for unified handling of schemas, data instances, as well as queries.