What is sharding in the context of databases?

Sharding is a method of vertical scaling of a database by dividing data into smaller, independent parts called shards. Each shard is stored on a separate server or cluster of servers, which helps distribute the load and increase the database management system's (DBMS) performance.

Main approaches to sharding:

• Range Sharding: Data is divided into shards based on ranges of the sharding key's values.
• Hash Sharding: Data is distributed among shards based on a hash function of the sharding key.
• List Sharding: Data is distributed based on a predefined list of sharding key values.

Advantages of sharding:

• Increased performance through load distribution.
• Enhanced availability and fault tolerance.
• Improved scalability.

Disadvantages of sharding:

• Increased complexity of the database architecture.
• Complexity in executing queries that involve multiple shards.
• The need to manage distributed transactions.