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Ehcache vs Memcached: What are the differences?
Introduction
Ehcache and Memcached are both popular caching solutions used by developers to improve the performance and scalability of their applications. While they serve a similar purpose, there are key differences between the two.
Architecture: Ehcache is an in-memory caching solution that can be used as a standalone cache or integrated with other frameworks. It stores data in the Java heap memory of the application. On the other hand, Memcached is a distributed caching system that stores data in a separate process or server, allowing it to be shared across multiple applications or servers.
Data Persistence: Ehcache provides the option to persist cached data on disk or in a database. This allows data to be retained even after the application restarts. In contrast, Memcached does not provide built-in data persistence and relies on the principle of ephemeral caching, where data is temporary and not guaranteed to be available after a restart.
Scalability: Memcached is designed for high scalability and can be easily deployed in a distributed manner. It supports a distributed hash table (DHT) algorithm for data partitioning and replication across multiple Memcached servers. In comparison, Ehcache is primarily designed for single-server deployments and does not have built-in support for distributed caching.
API and Language Support: Ehcache is tightly integrated with the Java programming language and provides a comprehensive set of APIs for Java developers. It also offers support for some other JVM languages like Scala and Groovy. In contrast, Memcached has a language-agnostic API, making it accessible to developers using languages such as PHP, Python, Ruby, and more.
Consistency and Synchronization: Ehcache provides strong consistency guarantees and supports synchronization mechanisms like locking and transactional caching. This ensures data integrity in multi-threaded or clustered environments. Memcached, on the other hand, does not provide built-in mechanisms for consistency and synchronization, as it primarily focuses on high-speed caching operations.
Community and Ecosystem: Ehcache has a strong community support and is widely used in Java-based enterprise applications. It is actively maintained and backed by companies like Terracotta. Memcached also has a large community and is popular among developers working with web and distributed systems. It is open-source and has numerous client libraries available for various programming languages.
In Summary, Ehcache and Memcached differ in their architecture, data persistence, scalability, language support, consistency guarantees, and community/ecosystem. These differences make them suitable for different use cases and development environments.
Hi guys! I need an in-memory key/value storage with a lifespan for each key What do you recommend me to use? I was thinking about using a ConcurrentHashMap, with a scheduled thread evicting keys when apply. In fact, it is a possibility due because the performance is not important. But, on the other side, I have considered using any library such as Memcached, Ehcache, guava...
Redis can do the same jobs as Memcached, ECache or any other im-memory caching tool and can do them better. - Redis can act as a cache as well. It can store key/value pairs too. In Redis, they can even be up to 512MB. - Redis is better documented than Memcached and ECached. - Supports many data types. (Strings, Hashes, Lists, Sets, Sorted Sets, Geo, Bitmap and HyperLogLog) - Redis provides pub/sub as well. - Redis can be scaled easily horizontally if needed using its own tool Redis Sentinel. - Wide variety of client libraries in almost every language.
Pros of Ehcache
- Way Faster than Redis and Elasticache Redis1
- Easy setup1
- Simpler to run in testing environment1
- Container doesn't have to be running for local tests1
Pros of Memcached
- Fast object cache139
- High-performance129
- Stable91
- Mature65
- Distributed caching system33
- Improved response time and throughput11
- Great for caching HTML3
- Putta2
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Cons of Ehcache
Cons of Memcached
- Only caches simple types2
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What is Ehcache?
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