While the performance of a certain website online is one of the most crucial aspects for its overall success; ‘Cache’ or the ‘Cache strategies’ are something to watch out for. But, what is Cache, and how to best use it to enhance the online presence of your website further? Let us take a closer look into this ‘much-sought’ after feature:

A cache is a feature designed to store frequently accessed content or data within a temporary location; this location is the ‘Cache’. The main objective of Cache is for the web applications to be able to serve content to the users as soon as possible. However, one of the best aspects of the web application is that it does not have to refer to the main source every time. 

• As mentioned earlier, one of the main advantages of Cache is the enhanced application performance. 

• This is done, as the access time taken to retrieve the frequently accessed content is greatly reduced. So, you see, the ‘user experience’ is better along with the overall performance. 

• A lot of cost can be reduced with the application of this feature. 

• The scalability is also further enhanced.

• The data integrity is not affected.

• The application functionality is also not affected.

Let us take a look at the top cache strategies used:

Least Frequently Used- LFU

This strategy eliminates those data that have been accessed for the least amount of time. This is so that the data that is not being used too many times, need not be used over and over again. 

Least Recently Used -LRU

With the help of this strategy, you can easily remove those data that were least recently used or accessed. This is to be able to make room for newer, and more usable data. This helps eliminate accessing those data that are least likely to be accessed over and over again. 

Last-In, First-Out (LIFO)

This strategy eliminates those data that have been added to the cache most recently; to make space for the newer more usable data. This is based on the idea that the data that was used in the latest is most unlikely to be accessed any sooner. 

Random Replacement

This is a caching strategy that works by removing the data from the cache ‘randomly’ to be able to make room for newer data. However, bear in mind that this strategy can only be used in alignment with the other mentioned strategy for them to work ‘under ideal conditions’. 

Cache-Aside

This is one of the most useful strategies that is used primarily for managing the cache. This works by checking on the cache first when the data is requested. In case the data is not within the Cache, then it is extracted from the database, and later stored in the cache for further use. Despite being quite flexible, this strategy nevertheless, requires good knowledge and management about the topic to make it more up-to-date. 

The Write-Through 

Write-through is all about writing the data to both the database and the cache at the same time. After the data has been updated, it is later written onto the cache and the database simultaneously. This is to ensure that the cache always consists of the up-to-date data. Nevertheless, this process can also result in slowing down the operations. 

The Write-Behind

This strategy involves writing the data first and later on to the database. With this, the operations are, thus, written much faster; nevertheless, this can also lead to certain inconsistencies in case you are not able to manage the cache well enough. 

The Read-through

In this strategy, the Cache is utilized as the main data source. Once the data has been requested, the cache undergoes a thorough examination. In case the data is not within the cache it is then extracted from the database and later stored with the cache for later use. This is quite advantageous, if the database is slower or if the data is used frequently; but hardly ever updated. 

Now, it is also important to be able to know just how well your cache strategy is working for you. Let us now dive deeper into how to get this done:

The Cache Hit Rate: This represents the percentage of the requests that are being served from the cache instead of the backend data store. Hence, the higher the hit rate, the better is the strategy. 

Cache Eviction Rate Analysis: This is the percentage of the cached items that are eliminated from the cache because of replacement or expiration. So you see, the higher  is the eviction rate, the shorter is the cache expiration time or even the cache size. 

To Monitor the Data Consistency: This is important for caching, as when the cached data grows stale or outdated, then it can lead to incorrect results, thus creating problems for the integrity of your application.