A computer-readable medium having stored computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computer, cause the computer to perform steps comprising: identifying a primary cloned fragment (131, 141, 143, 145) from a group of cloned fragments associated with a database object being divided into fragments, wherein the database object is a table, an index, a set of rows in a table or entries in an index, or a partition of a table or index and wherein the fragments of the database object are created by splitting the database object into discrete sets of rows for tables or index entries for indices, the fragments in the database object being cloned to create cloned fragments, wherein the group of cloned fragments is related to a particular fragment of the database object and wherein the group of cloned fragments comprises the primary cloned fragment and secondary cloned fragments, the cloned fragments within the group being created as operationally identical to each other, the primary cloned fragment being selected for database operations associated with the database object and changes to the primary cloned fragment being propagated to secondary cloned fragments that serve as readily available backups to provide a high level of data availability, wherein propagation occurs within the same transactional context as updates to the primary cloned fragment; identifying a secondary cloned fragment (140, 142, 144, 146) from the group of cloned fragments, wherein the secondary cloned fragment has not received transaction propagation of updates from the primary cloned fragment and wherein rows or index entries in the secondary cloned fragment are not transactionally consistent with corresponding rows or index entries in the primary cloned fragment; and refreshing the secondary cloned fragment with data in the primary cloned fragment by performing a database operation, wherein the database operation for refreshing the secondary cloned fragment runs as a sequence of small transactional batches of operations that incrementally refresh the secondary cloned fragment, wherein an update operation can be performed on the secondary cloned fragment while the clone refresh operation for this secondary cloned fragment is executing; and wherein each transactional batch of the refreshing step starts in repeated read mode, locks a small number of records in the primary cloned fragment with read locks for a short interval of time and runs concurrently with other user workloads. identifying a primary cloned fragment (131, 141, 143, 145) from a group of cloned fragments associated with a database object being divided into fragments, wherein the database object is a table, an index, a set of rows in a table or entries in an index, or a partition of a table or index and wherein the fragments of the database object are created by splitting the database object into discrete sets of rows for tables or index entries for indices, the fragments in the database object being cloned to create cloned fragments, wherein the group of cloned fragments is related to a particular fragment of the database object and wherein the group of cloned fragments comprises the primary cloned fragment and secondary cloned fragments, the cloned fragments within the group being created as operationally identical to each other, the primary cloned fragment being selected for database operations associated with the database object and changes to the primary cloned fragment being propagated to secondary cloned fragments that serve as readily available backups to provide a high level of data availability, wherein propagation occurs within the same transactional context as updates to the primary cloned fragment; identifying a secondary cloned fragment (140, 142, 144, 146) from the group of cloned fragments, wherein the secondary cloned fragment has not received transaction propagation of updates from the primary cloned fragment and wherein rows or index entries in the secondary cloned fragment are not transactionally consistent with corresponding rows or index entries in the primary cloned fragment; and refreshing the secondary cloned fragment with data in the primary cloned fragment by performing a database operation, wherein the database operation for refreshing the secondary cloned fragment runs as a sequence of small transactional batches of operations that incrementally refresh the secondary cloned fragment, wherein an update operation can be performed on the secondary cloned fragment while the clone refresh operation for this secondary cloned fragment is executing; and wherein each transactional batch of the refreshing step starts in repeated read mode, locks a small number of records in the primary cloned fragment with read locks for a short interval of time and runs concurrently with other user workloads.