diff --git a/doc/source/glossary.rst b/doc/source/glossary.rst
index e2f7e9451..db657e6ea 100644
--- a/doc/source/glossary.rst
+++ b/doc/source/glossary.rst
@@ -64,14 +64,14 @@ protocol, which is one of the main requirements in today’s scalable applicatio
      Queues database stores the information about the queues and the messages
      within these queues. Storage layer has to guarantee durability and availability of the data.
 
-   Sharding
-     If sharding enabled, queuing service uses multiple queues databases in order
-     to scale horizontally. A shard (queues database) can be added anytime without
-     stopping the service. Each shard has a weight that is assigned during the
-     creation time but can be changed later. Sharding is done by queue which
-     indicates that all messages for a particular queue can be found in the same shard (queues database).
+   Pooling
+     If pooling enabled, queuing service uses multiple queues databases in order
+     to scale horizontally. A pool (queues database) can be added anytime without
+     stopping the service. Each pool has a weight that is assigned during the
+     creation time but can be changed later. Pooling is done by queue which
+     indicates that all messages for a particular queue can be found in the same pool (queues database).
 
    Catalog Database
-     If sharding is enabled, catalog database has to be created. Catalog database
+     If pooling is enabled, catalog database has to be created. Catalog database
      maintains ``queues`` to ``queues database`` mapping. Storage layer has
      to guarantee durability and availability of data.
diff --git a/doc/source/installing.rst b/doc/source/installing.rst
index 389ef2f9c..155a84fa6 100644
--- a/doc/source/installing.rst
+++ b/doc/source/installing.rst
@@ -156,8 +156,8 @@ Create a Marconi configuration file ``/etc/marconi.conf`` with the following con
     # Show debugging output in logs (sets DEBUG log level output)
     #debug = False
 
-    # Sharding and admin mode configs
-    sharding      = True
+    # Pooling and admin mode configs
+    pooling      = True
     admin_mode    = True
 
     # Log to this file!
@@ -239,17 +239,17 @@ Start the queuing service::
     #/usr/bin/uwsgi --ini /srv/marconi/uwsgi.ini
 
 
-Configure Shards
+Configure Pools
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
-To have a functional queuing service, we need to define a shard. On one of the
+To have a functional queuing service, we need to define a pool. On one of the
 web servers run this command::
 
-    curl -i -X PUT -H 'X-Auth-Token: $TOKEN' -d '{"weight": 100, "uri": "mongodb://mydb0,mydb1,mydb2:27017/?replicaSet=catalog&w=2&readPreference=secondaryPreferred", "options": {"partitions": 8}}' http://localhost:8888/v1/shards/shard1
+    curl -i -X PUT -H 'X-Auth-Token: $TOKEN' -d '{"weight": 100, "uri": "mongodb://mydb0,mydb1,mydb2:27017/?replicaSet=catalog&w=2&readPreference=secondaryPreferred", "options": {"partitions": 8}}' http://localhost:8888/v1/pools/pool1
 
 The above ``$TOKEN`` variable is the authentication token retrieved from
 identity service. If you choose not to enable Keystone authentication you won't
 have to pass a token.
 
-Reminder: In larger deployments, catalog database and queues databases (shards)
+Reminder: In larger deployments, catalog database and queues databases (pools)
 are going to be on different MongoDB replica-sets.
diff --git a/etc/marconi.conf.sample b/etc/marconi.conf.sample
index 40a86e076..850b4583e 100644
--- a/etc/marconi.conf.sample
+++ b/etc/marconi.conf.sample
@@ -14,13 +14,13 @@
 # Options defined in marconi.bootstrap
 #
 
-# ('Enable sharding across multiple storage backends. ', 'If
-# sharding is enabled, the storage driver ', 'configuration is
-# used to determine where the ', 'catalogue/control plane data
-# is kept.') (boolean value)
-#sharding=false
+# Enable pooling across multiple storage backends. If
+# pooling is enabled, the storage driver configuration is
+# used to determine where the catalogue/control plane data
+# is kept. (boolean value)
+#pooling=false
 
-# Activate endpoints to manage shard registry. (boolean value)
+# Activate endpoints to manage pool registry. (boolean value)
 #admin_mode=false
 
 
@@ -354,10 +354,10 @@
 #enforce_token_bind=permissive
 
 
-[sharding:catalog]
+[pooling:catalog]
 
 #
-# Options defined in marconi.storage.sharding
+# Options defined in marconi.storage.pooling
 #
 
 # Catalog storage driver. (integer value)
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index 48787223c..dd1defbb8 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ oslo.config.opts =
     marconi.bootstrap = marconi.queues.bootstrap:_config_options
     marconi.storage.base = marconi.queues.storage.base:_config_options
     marconi.storage.pipeline = marconi.queues.storage.pipeline:_config_options
-    marconi.storage.sharding = marconi.queues.storage.sharding:_config_options
+    marconi.storage.pooling = marconi.queues.storage.pooling:_config_options
     marconi.storage.mongodb = marconi.queues.storage.mongodb.options:_config_options
 
     # NOTE(flaper87): sqlite points to sqla for backwards compatibility
diff --git a/tools/config/oslo.config.generator.rc b/tools/config/oslo.config.generator.rc
index 394ea6506..e37a71aeb 100644
--- a/tools/config/oslo.config.generator.rc
+++ b/tools/config/oslo.config.generator.rc
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ export OSLO_CONFIG_GENERATOR_EXTRA_MODULES="keystoneclient.middleware.auth_token
 export OSLO_CONFIG_GENERATOR_EXTRA_LIBRARIES="marconi.bootstrap
                                               marconi.storage.base
                                               marconi.storage.pipeline
-                                              marconi.storage.sharding
+                                              marconi.storage.pooling
                                               marconi.storage.mongodb
                                               marconi.storage.sqlalchemy
                                               marconi.transport.wsgi