Shard

A shard is a way of breaking a large database into smaller, more manageable pieces called fragments. Each shard contains a subset of the data and operates independently, which can improve performance and reliability. Think of it like dividing a large library into sections so that each section’s books are stored separately. This allows multiple servers to handle different shards simultaneously, speeding up data access and reducing bottlenecks. Sharding is commonly used in distributed systems and cloud computing to efficiently manage big data, ensuring faster response times and easier scaling.