How does partitioning differ from sharding?

Partitioning and sharding are methods of data separation, but with different goals and scales.

• Partitioning is the division of data within a single database or table into logical parts (partitions) to improve performance and manageability. For example, a table can be partitioned by date or by a range of values. Partitioning is usually transparent to the application and helps speed up queries and maintenance operations.

• Sharding is horizontal scaling, where data is distributed across different physical servers or nodes (shards). Each shard contains a part of the data, and together they form the complete database. Sharding is used to increase capacity and system performance with large volumes of data.

In summary:

• Partitioning — within a single database/table, logical division.
• Sharding — distribution of data across different servers, physical separation for scaling.

Example: in a distributed system with billions of records, a table can be partitioned by months, with each month stored on a separate shard.