A Decade of Horizontal Fragmentation Methods in OLAP from Data Warehouse to Data Lakehouse: A Scoping Review

One of the main problems faced by database administrators for optimizing analytic workloads is fragmentation. Therefore, in recent decades, several fragmentation methods for analytical platforms have been proposed because this technique is able to improve the performance of OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) queries. In this study, we conducted an exploratory review of horizontal fragmentation methods for analytical repositories such as data warehouses, data lakes, and data lakehouses. This study presents a scoping review conducted using Arksey and O’Malley’s methodological framework and reported according to the PRISMA guidelines, covering 58 primary studies on horizontal fragmentation published from 2015 to 2025. Our analysis focuses on five aspects: (1) determining the main techniques used in horizontal fragmentation works for analytical repositories, (2) the classification of these studies, (3) the performance metrics considered when evaluating the horizontal fragmentation scheme, (4) the information type indexed by the repositories, and (5) the technologies most used by the approaches. Our findings suggest that horizontal fragmentation is a good opportunity to improve the performance of analytical workloads in most cases. The results of this scoping review will provide important guidelines for future research on horizontal fragmentation methods. In addition, the results will provide clues about the use of OLAP technologies for professionals and academics considering future directions.