I brought this up on Twitter, but I think the term "shard" referring to a partitioned database originated from Ultima Online.
The game's fiction included reference to shards of a wizard's crystal that created duplicate worlds -- a convenient explanation within that universe for the need to run multiple, duplicate servers with different users on them.
The game's fiction included reference to shards of a wizard's crystal that created duplicate worlds -- a convenient explanation within that universe for the need to run multiple, duplicate servers with different users on them.
https://twitter.com/amontalenti/status/615116231092371456