The subject matter herein relates to database management systems and, more particularly, encrypted data management in database management systems. Various embodiments provide systems, methods, and software to maintain database tables, some of which are encrypted. Some embodiments include holding clear text in cache and servicing queries from the cache. When a query is received, a file system of the database management system determines if a table holding data to service the query is encrypted. If the table is encrypted, the file system decrypts the data and writes the data to the cache as clear text. Some embodiments, when writing clear text to a table from the cache, determine if the table to which the data is to be written is an encrypted table. If the table is encrypted, the file system encrypts the clear text and stores the cipher text to the encrypted table.