Creating copies of data across multiple database servers for availability and performance. Like having backup copies of important documents stored in different safe locations.
Global applications use database replication to ensure users can access data quickly from servers in their region.
All major clouds support replication, but the feature names differ by database type. Relational services typically offer read replicas (for scaling reads) and synchronous standby replication for HA/failover. Globally distributed databases (e.g., DynamoDB Global Tables, Cosmos DB, Spanner) replicate across regions for low-latency access and resilience, often with configurable consistency.