A database manager is disclosed that retrieves database records having binary encoded data from a database and instantiating objects in an in-memory database. Binary encoding compresses data, allowing many subrecords to be stored a single blob field of a database record. Retrieving chunks from storage reduces transfer time by reducing the size of data and the number of operations needed to retrieve all the subrecords. The database manager receives database access requests from a database application. Changes made to the database objects and committed by the application are written back to the persistent database as versioned delta records. In a subsequent session, loading the database from storage includes first loading the most recent snapshot record, then applying changes to the data stored in delta records. The changes stored in the delta records are applied to the data in the snapshot record in the order in which they were made.