Systems and methods are provided for handling synchronous requests from a requesting entity. Illustratively, the requesting entity is in a database management system and the requests are made to a catalog server. The catalog server is configured to respond to the requests by accessing a catalog database. An interface is provided between an application and a catalog server. The interface is configured to determine whether the catalog server is available to handle requests. If the catalog server is unavailable and if the request is a synchronous request, the interface determines whether the request may be processed asynchronously.