"Cache me" if you can!
But first, answer these questions:
What's your Read-Write Ratio?
A high read ratio benefits more from caching.
A high write ratio needs more sophisticated strategies like write-through or write-back caching.
How critical is data consistency?
Write-Through: when consistency is critical.
Write the data to the cache and the database simultaneously.
The Write-Through strategy works well with the Read-Through strategy for read-heavy workloads, ensuring that the cache always contains the most up-to-date data.
Write-Around: when you have a write-heavy workload, you want to keep your DB as the source of truth, and you can accept slightly stale data for read operations.
It simplifies cache invalidation and ensures that the database remains the authoritative data source.
Write-Behind: When writing performance is important, some delay in data consistency is acceptable.
Write the data to the cache first and then to the database after a short delay. If the cache fails, data loss is possible.
How will you handle cache invalidation?
You must know when to refresh your data to be ready for cache.
What are the scalability requirements?
Scalability considerations include distributed caching and cache sharding.
What kind of data are you caching?
For small, structured data that requires quick access, use an in-memory cache like Redis.
For Medium, Semi-Structured, and Moderate Access, a disk-based cache or a document-oriented cache like MongoDB might be the best.
For Large, Binary, and High Access (for example, images), go for a content delivery network (CDN) for caching.
How do you know it is working?
You can't improve what you don't measure.
Hit/Miss Ratios: Measure cache effectiveness.
Latency Improvements: Track response time reductions.
Load Reduction: Assess the impact on the backend load.
What would you add?
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Great write-up. It is also important to pay attention to how you name your cache keys in key/value storages, we wrote recently about it - https://packagemain.tech/p/unified-namespaced-cache-keys
Short, yet very informative article. 🚀