In Memory Cache | Explained
In today’s digital world, speed is the important factor considered whenever a system is designed. With in-memory technology, the data that is frequently accessed to keep the data in memory for faster retrieval.
In simpler terms, the data is stored between the application and the primary storage. By holding the data in RAM it reduces the access time resulting in performance, scalability and user experience.
Types of in-memory cache:
- Read-Through Cache: Data is loaded into the cache on-demand when it is requested.
- Write-Through Cache: Writes data to both the cache and the underlying storage simultaneously.
- Write-Around Cache: Writes data only to the primary storage, avoiding the cache.
- Write-Back Cache: Writes data to the cache first and then asynchronously writes it to the primary storage.
How In Memory Cache Works??
Lets understand about this using a simple analogy. Imagine a chef working at a fast-paced restaurant needs to prepare quick meals. Instead of fetching the ingredients like veggies, spices, meat and other from the freezer, he keeps a chef-box next to him that has all the ingredients needed to prepare the meal. there is an order for a meal, he quickly looks at his chef-box(in-memory cache) to see if he has all the ingredients and he proceeds with the preparation else he gets his missing ingredients from the pantry(primary storage) and starts preparing.
With both the operation the job is complete however when the chef has the chef box he can deliver the meal at a much quicker pace.
Advantages of In Memory Cache:
Speed and Performance: Accessing data from memory is faster than disk storage reducing response time.
Scalability: Cache can handle large # of requests.
Reduced Latency: Latency is minimized by accessing data from memory.
Use Cases:
Web Applications: To speed up page loads by caching HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files.
Database Caching: Store query results and reduce the data retrieval.
Session Management: For storing session data, providing quick access to user-specific information.
Content Delivery Networks (CDNs): To cache content closer to users, improving load times and reducing bandwidth costs. Eg. AWS Cloud Front.
Popular In Memory Cache Systems: Redis, Memcached.
Conclusion
In-memory caching is a powerful tool that can drastically improve application performance and user experience. Feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments. Thanks.
