Partitioning of source partitions of a table of a database to target partitions is initiated. Thereafter, a transition partition specification is specified that identifies the source partitions and the target partitions. Data is then moved (e.g., asynchronously moved, etc.) from the source partitions to the target partitions. Concurrently with the moving of the data, operates are handled using the transition partition specification. Subsequently, the source partitions are dropped when all of the data has been moved to the target partitions and there are no open transactions accessing the source partitions. Related apparatus, systems, techniques and articles are also described.