Software Architect's Handbook

Caching

Leveraging the use of caching in a software application is a common way to improve performance. It may be used in a variety of places where data is being read, making it a cross-cutting concern for the application.

A reusable caching service should provide the ability to perform operations, such as putting data in a cache, getting data out of a cache, and setting policies on how and when cached data will expire.

When designing a software system, software architects must make a decision on the type of caching that the system will use. The two main types of server-side caching are an in-process cache and a distributed cache. With an in-process cache, the cache is local to the application instance. Load balanced applications will have ...