When a dashboard uses a data object design, each time the dashboard is refreshed the data object connects to the underlying data source and retrieves data from it. This operation is typically resource-intensive and time consuming. For a more efficient data access alternative, cache the data in a data object store, and use this file as a data source for dashboard gadgets.

Data objects stores, similar to data marts, are repositories of data gathered from corporate data sources to address specific business queries. These files support version storage, for example, a data object store called orders.data can exist as a different version for each quarter of a year or containing data from different countries. This ensures that multiple dashboards use the same data. Dashboard developers can select a specific version or to always use the latest version in a gadget. Data object store files have the file-name extension .data.