1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: monitoring, by a processing device, object creation and access in an in-memory data grid; identifying reference data in an object field of a plurality of object instances in the in-memory data grid; creating a reference map for the object field; replicating the reference map across all partitions of the in-memory data grid; storing the reference data in the reference map; updating the object field to identify the reference map; and accessing the reference data using the reference map.