System administrators can distribute collections of data (e.g. in a database) across multiple physical locations.
Because distributed databases store data across multiple computers, distributed databases may improve performance at end-user worksites by allowing transactions to be processed on many machines, instead of being limited to one.
[2] Two processes ensure that the distributed databases remain up-to-date and current: replication[3] and duplication.
For example, local autonomy, synchronous, and asynchronous distributed database technologies.
When discussing access to distributed databases, Microsoft favors the term distributed query, which it defines in protocol-specific manner as "[a]ny SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, or DELETE statement that references tables and rowsets from one or more external OLE DB data sources".