Shared throughput databases can now merge unused partitions.
With partition merge, you can rework the physical partitions for containers with fragmented throughput (less than 3000 request units per partition) or storage (less than 20 GB of storage per partition). If a container’s throughput has been scaled up and needs to be scaled back down, merge can help resolve throughput fragmentation issues. For the same amount of provisioned RU/s, having fewer physical partitions means each physical partition gets more of the overall RU/s. Minimizing partitions reduces the chance of rate limiting if a large quantity of data is removed from a container and RU/s per partition is low. Merge can help clear out unused or empty partitions, effectively resolving storage fragmentation problems.
