Amazon ElastiCache
Amazon ElastiCache provides two cache engines- Redis and Memcached.
ElastiCache Memcached
ElastiCache Memcached is a distributed memory object caching system with high performance. It's an in-memory key-value store for small chunks of arbitrary data (strings, objects) returned by database queries, API calls, or page rendering.
It is commonly used in speeding up dynamic database-driven websites by caching data and objects to reduce the number of times an external data source is read to get the values into the web application.
Memcached is a very popular choice for powering real-time applications in Web, Mobile Apps, Gaming, Ad-Tech, and E-Commerce.
ElastiCache Redis
Redis stands for Remote Dictionary Server. The dictionary represents the dictionary data structure that is used to store key-value pairs. Amazon ElastiCache for Redis, on the other hand, is based on open-source Redis and is designed to work in tandem with Redis clients as a lightning-fast in-memory data store. It's so fast, in fact, that it can support demanding applications with sub-millisecond latency.
You can rely on it to work with complex data types, such as bitmaps, sorted sets, lists, sets, hashes, and strings. Furthermore, it can power multiple databases while also ensuring the persistence of your key store.
Amazon ElastiCache Use Cases
There are various areas where the Amazon ElastiCache is used. Some of the use cases of the Amazon ElastiCache are:
- In the gaming industry for updating and managing leaderboards.
- For conducting real-time analytics while customers shop on e-commerce sites.
- For monitoring the status of customers’ accounts on subscription-based sites.
- Online media streaming.
- For performing geospatial processes.
- For Processing and relaying messages on instant messaging platforms.
Amazon ElastiCache on the AWS Management Console
Let us see how the Amazon ElastiCache console looks after logging into our AWS account.
On the AWS management console type “ElastiCache.” You would see something like the below image.
Click on ElastiCache and that will take you to the main ElastiCache console. You would be able to view something similar to the below image on your screen.
Features of Amazon ElastiCache
Below are the features of the Amazon ElastiCache that make it a popular choice among developers across the world.
Fully-managed
ElastiCache is a fully managed cloud-based solution. This means that we won't have to worry about backups, failure recovery, monitoring, configuration, setups, software patching, or hardware requirements while enjoying the advanced caching capabilities. All of this will be handled by the service, which will also continuously monitor the clusters to ensure that Redis is running efficiently.
Better Application Performance
ElastiCache offers in-memory data stores that significantly reduce overall response times. The enhancement is so significant that standard read and write operations now take less than a millisecond. This makes it possible to run demanding web applications that require real-time responses with ease.
Scalable
The amount of data that your application must process is rarely constant. It rises and falls in response to your application's growth or normal fluctuations in demand. ElastiCache allows you to scale your cache in response to demand.
Availability
AWS ElastiCache achieves high availability through automatic failover detection and mitigation, in addition to running in both cluster and non-cluster modes.
FAQs
What is ElastiCache?
Amazon ElastiCache is a cache-as-a-service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS). It is a fully managed solution capable of deploying, managing, and scaling a distributed in-memory cache environment in the cloud.
Why is ElastiCache used?
ElastiCache is used for caching, which improves application and database speed, or as the primary data store for non-durable use cases such as session stores, gaming leaderboards, streaming, and analytics.
What are the two cache engines provided by ElastiCache?
The two cache engines are Memcached and Redis.
What is ElastiCache Redis?
Amazon ElastiCache for Redis is based on open-source Redis and is designed to work in tandem with Redis clients as a lightning-fast in-memory data store.
What are the features of ElastiCache?
The features of the ElastiCache are that it is fully manageable, scalable, and readily available.
Conclusion
In this article, we have extensively discussed the ElastiCache in AWS.
- ElastiCache is used for caching, which improves application and database speed, or as the primary data store for non-durable use cases such as session stores, gaming leaderboards, streaming, and analytics.
- Amazon ElastiCache is a cache-as-a-service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS). It is a fully managed solution capable of deploying, managing, and scaling a distributed in-memory cache environment in the cloud.
We hope that this blog has helped you enhance your knowledge regarding Elastic Cache in AWS and if you would like to learn more, check out our articles here.
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