Software Architect's Handbook

Cache-aside pattern

In the cache-aside pattern, the application is responsible for maintaining the data in the cache. The cache is kept aside and it doesn't interact with the database directly. When values from the cache are requested by the application, the cache is checked first. If it exists in the cache, it is returned from there and the system-of-record is bypassed. If it does not exist in the cache, the data is retrieved from the system-of-record, stored in the cache, and returned.

When data is written to the database, the application must handle potentially invalidated cached data and ensure that the cache is consistent with the system-of-record.