Data replication is the process of distributing data across multiple servers residing in the same location/data center or in different data centers. The data is distributed using a reliable and, usually, non-interactive process.

Replication provides redundancy and increases data availability. Data replication also provides fault tolerance capability, enabling systems to recover from hardware and server failures. Distributed systems usually require some data replication (locality of data) in order to work efficiently. Data replication could be required for:

• Live backup scenarios, where the application needs to be widely available in case of cluster failures
• Geolocation scenarios, where the data resides closer to the end user