Shards

Shards are smaller, divideable parts of a larger database or system, used to improve performance and manageability. Think of a large library divided into sections—each section (shard) holds a portion of the books (data). When the system receives a request, it can quickly direct it to the relevant shard instead of searching the entire database, making processes faster and more efficient. Sharding helps systems handle large amounts of data by distributing it across multiple servers, ensuring each server manages a manageable subset, which enhances scalability and reduces load.