Amazon Web Services - Introduction to Elastic Cache
Last Updated : 03 May, 2023
This article intends to make the readers aware of one of the core services of AWS or Amazon Web Services called the Amazon Elastic Cache. Amazon ElastiCache is a complete caching solution proposed by AWS. It elevates the overall data accessing the experience of a user because of its wide range of multiple real-time use cases support. ElastiCache from Amazon is a fully managed and in-memory caching system which supports for flexible and real-time use cases.
Before diving deep into the functioning concepts, let us understand a few basic terms attached to it.
What is Caching?
Caching is the process of storing data in a cache. It allows you to quickly reuse data that has been previously obtained or calculated. Normally, all the data resides in the main memory of the system, but caching reduces the whole retrieving process with the help of cache memory. In simpler words, caching reduces the searching bandwidth of the desired data. A cache is a high-speed data storage layer in computing that saves a portion of data that is often temporary in nature so that forthcoming requests for that data may be served up faster than accessing the data's primary storage location. There are some database queries used by user are inherently slower and also costs expensive than others queries to users. By caching the results of query, users can pay only for the price of the query once used. Then the user can quickly retrieves the data multiple times but there is no need to re-execute the query.
Amazon Elastic Cache:
ElastiCache from Amazon is a fully managed in-memory caching solution that supports a variety of customizable, real-time use cases. Amazon Elastic Cache has the ability to manage, deploy, and scale the distributed in-memory cache environment in the AWS cloud. ElastiCache can be used for caching, which improves application and database speed, or as the main data store for use cases like session stores, gaming leaderboards, streaming, and analytics that don't require durability.
Amazon ElastiCache allows its users to use the Redis and Memcached cache engines.
Redis stands for Remote Dictionary Server. Here, the dictionary refers to the dictionary data structure. As we all know, dictionaries work on the key-value pair mechanism and so does Redis. It is an open-source in-memory data structure implementing the caching process. Amazon ElastiCache with Redis is completely compatible with open-sourced data formats, APIs, and clients.
Memcached is a memory management caching system as well. It is frequently used to speed up dynamic database-driven websites by caching data and objects in order to minimize the number of times an independent data source must be read in order to obtain the values into the web application. Memcached is a simple yet powerful memory caching system. Its easy design promotes speedy deployment, simplicity of development, and overcomes numerous issues associated with huge data caches. Its API is available in the majority of common languages.
Let us look at Amazon ElastiCache on the AWS management console.
Login to your AWS account. Once you are redirected to the AWS management console. Type "ElastiCache" on the search bar and the first option that appears will lead to our desired console. Refer to the screenshot in order to avoid any confusion.
In a while, you will be directed towards the Amazon ElastiCache Console. On the left of the window, there is the navigation pane, which consists of various services as options. Refer to the image attached ahead for better understanding.
This was a quick sneak peek with Amazon ElastiCache. There are a variety of options for the user to choose from depending upon the requirements.
Usecases of Elastic Cache:-
- Accelerating in lightning-fast application performance
- Ease to handle the backend database load
- Supports real-time applications
- Stores the non-durable dataset
ElastiCache Benefits:
- High performance: ElastiCache allows you to cache frequently accessed data in-memory, reducing the latency and improving the performance of your applications.
- Scalability: ElastiCache provides a highly scalable cache environment, allowing you to scale up or down the size of your cache cluster as needed to accommodate changes in traffic or workload.
- Low latency: ElastiCache is designed to deliver low latency for your cache operations, making it suitable for applications that require real-time data access.
- Fully managed: ElastiCache is a fully managed service, which means AWS takes care of the infrastructure, patching, and backups, allowing you to focus on your core business.
- Integration with other AWS services: ElastiCache integrates with other AWS services such as EC2, RDS, and Lambda, making it easy to build scalable and highly available applications.
ElastiCache has some limitations to consider. For example, it is a cache service, not a persistent data store, so it is not suitable for storing data that must survive a cache cluster restart. Additionally, ElastiCache is a regional service, so you cannot use it to cache data across regions.
Customers using Elastic Cache:-
1. Tinder
2. PayPay Corporation
3. Adobe
4. Airbnb
5. Coralogix
6. McDonald’s
7. Dream11
8. LG Cloud Center
9. Grab
10. Rokt