Fragmentation independence refers to the ability of end users to store logically related information at different physical locations. There are two types of fragmentation independence: vertical partitioning and horizontal partitioning. Horizontal partitioning permits different rows of the same table to be stored at different remote sites. This is commonly done by organizations that maintain several branch offices, each with an identical set of table structures.
Vertical partitioning refers to the ability of a distributed system to fragment information such that the data columns from the same logical tables are maintained across the network. Oracle accomplishes this with Oracle views that hide specific columns and rows in a table.

There is an ongoing debate over the standard definition of distributed database systems. Vendors have implemented distributed database technology in different manners.
To many database vendors, a distributed database is a geographically distributed system composed entirely of one brand of database products. On the other hand, front end applications vendors define a distributed database as a system distributed architecturally, using a blend of database products and access methods
Finally, to hardware vendors, a distributed database is a system composed of different databases running on the same hardware platforms.