____________ embodies the “share-nothing” architecture and essentially involves breaking a large database
into several smaller databases. Common ways to split a database include 1) splitting tables that are not joined
in the same query onto different hosts or 2) duplicating a table across multiple hosts and then using a hashing
algorithm to determine which host receives a given update.

A.
Sharding

B.
Failure recovery

C.
Federation

D.
DDL operations

Explanation:

More detailed information on the pros and cons of sharing can be found at the following sites:
http://technoroy.blogspot.com/2008/07/shard-database-design.html http://www.hibernate.org/subprojects/
shards.html
How Amazon RDS Helps With Sharing Maintenance Overhead