A computer-implemented method for copying data records from a first table residing in a database to a second table involves selecting a column of the first table as a parallelization column, identifying a number of distinct data record field values in the parallelization column of the first table and identifying a corresponding number of copy groups of data records. Each copy group of the data records includes the data records of the first table, which have the same distinct data record field value in the parallelization column of the first table. The method further involves setting up a corresponding number of copy processes; each copy process is configured to copy a respective copy group of data records from the first table to the second table.