Data partitioning, also known as database partitioning, is a technique used to split an application's database into separate pieces, or partitions, to improve scalability, availability, and performance. As companies grow and their data needs expand, a single-instance database becomes insufficient, prompting the use of partitioning to manage data more efficiently. The two main types of partitioning are vertical and horizontal, with vertical partitioning dividing data by columns and horizontal partitioning dividing data by rows, often leading to sharding, which distributes data across multiple servers for better scalability. While partitioning offers benefits like reduced latency and increased fault tolerance, it introduces complexities and costs, particularly in managing sharded databases, which require significant manual work and maintenance. However, distributed SQL databases, such as CockroachDB, have emerged as a modern solution, automating much of the complexity involved in data partitioning and offering seamless scalability and resilience without the need for extensive manual intervention.