Assuming that you have an unique object id (which you have to have in the solution involving sticking data into a database), why not use a persistent (across connection) memory cache (say a hash table)?
You'll have the problem of freeing objects when they're not needed anymore but db soltuion has the same problem (the price of not deleting objects is lower, though, than leaking memory). But it'll be way faster (databases are actually very slow).
