Question: When to use Memcached?

Answer

Memcached is an open-source, high-performance, distributed memory caching system used for speeding up dynamic web applications by caching data and objects in RAM. Here are some scenarios when using Memcached can be beneficial:

1. Scalability: Memcached is designed to scale horizontally, enabling multiple servers to work together seamlessly, increasing the application's capacity to handle requests. As a result, it is an excellent choice for applications that need to handle a large volume of traffic.

2. High-Speed Data Access: Memcached stores data entirely in RAM, which means that data access times are much faster than traditional disk-based storage methods such as databases. This makes it ideal for applications that need to frequently read/write data.

3. Caching: Memcached is commonly used for caching frequently accessed data such as session data, user profiles, and metadata. By caching this information in-memory, you can significantly reduce the number of database queries required to generate a web page or an API response, making your application faster.

4. Shared Infrastructure: Memcached can be configured as a shared resource accessible to multiple instances of an application, allowing different clients to share the same cache. This enables efficient utilization of resources and reduces the load on backend systems.

5. Load Balancing: Memcached can also act as a load balancer by distributing requests evenly among cache servers. This ensures that the load is distributed efficiently, reducing the risk of overload or failure of any particular instance.

Overall, Memcached is an excellent choice for applications that require high-speed data access, scalability, effective caching strategies, and efficient resource utilization.