DISTRIBUTED DATA SET STORAGE, RETRIEVAL AND ANALYSIS

An apparatus includes a processor and a storage storing instructions causing the processor to: maintain a federated area; receive a request to perform a job flow with a data set from a remote device; retrieve a job flow definition specifying the tasks of the job flow from the federated area; determine whether there is an instance log in the federated area generated by a previous performance of the job flow with the data set; in response to there being such an instance log, compare the version specified in the instance log of each task routine for each task to the most recent version stored in the federated area; and in response to each version specified in the instance log matching the most recent version, provide the remote device with access to a result report generated by the previous performance in lieu of generating a new result report.