Delta cloning
Cloning is the process of making a copy. In the previous section, we started out by saying that we should try to minimize data movement and data copies whenever possible because there will always be a lot of effort required to keep things in sync and reconcile data. However, there are some cases where it is inevitable for business requirements. For example, there may be a scenario for data archiving, trying to reproduce an ML flow experiment in a different environment, short-term experimental runs on production data, the need to share data with a different LOB, or maybe the need to tweak a few table properties without affecting original source especially if there are consumers leveraging it with some assumptions.
Shallow cloning refers to copying metadata and deep cloning refers to copying both metadata and data. If shallow cloning suffices, it should be preferred as it is light and inexpensive, whereas deep cloning is a more involved process.
