Does Object Caching Really Help?

Does anybody have any thoughts on how Caching might improve performance of .NET applications? I know that Microsoft has a Cache object but from what I can see it does not work in a server-farm environment. I have seen at least one product (NCache by http://www.alachisoft.com) that claims to be an object cache for server-farms.

Has anybody used NCache or any other products for object caching in .NET?

Comments

  • Well cache does improve performance, but you have to find the fine line between space and time. Basically this means, the more you cache, the more memory that is used on the web server. Time means how fast you want your pages to load.

    Caching is great, if you want to minimize hits to a database for instance. However, it works best if you cache data that does not change often, like a readonly list.

    Personally, caching is something I would implement near the end of a projects completion as an optimization step. The reason is because, it is hard to debug pages that are cached, because you have to write some code to dump the cache.
  • You have rightly pointed out the issues involved in Caching. Actually I wanted to use distributed caching facility for my application. The distributed cache will reduce space constraint and will increase the response time of the application. I found one such product (NCache from www.alachisoft.com) that provides distributed object caching support in .NET. The good thing about the product is that I can use it with my caching application without making any changes to the code. I want to know experience of other people about Caching using NCache or other similar products.
  • Caching does improves the performance of the system by saving expensive database trips, but the problem with caching is that you have to update the cache with the most recent data otherwise the stale data increases the risk of conflicts in your system.
    Keeping Cache uptodate is more challenging in server-farms. I have also searched and evaluated lots of products that provide disributed caching facility for server-farms. But at the end I found NCache(from www.alachisoft.com) to be more useful and productive than the others. The best thing about the product is that you can use it in your caching application without changing your existing code. I am satisfied with the results of this product.



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