I'm not sure if it's the answer but you may be slightly misunderstanding it - you are describing a system without the crucial "Data Access Layer" which sits in

I'm not sure if it's the answer but you may be slightly misunderstanding it - you are describing a system without the crucial "Data Access Layer" which sits in front of the database. This layer is what mitigates part of the problem you are describing because it puts a layer of abstraction b/w raw data access and the services using the data. For example it could be a REST API, or using a message queuing backbone or both.