A hybrid distributed database setup involves a combination of each of the preceding said processes. Some of the information is replicated across the database nodes; if there exist departments exist that are common to multiple nodes, horizontal partitioning is made for those entities and individual departments can have a vertical partitioning for their information.

Data administrators play a crucial role in this setup to choose the right combination. This ensures that the data integrity and security are met, while following specific business needs.

The following table shows a comparison of the distributed database design approaches: