Implementing Multi-Level Caching in Java with NCache

By Abhinav Pandey

Multi-level caching is a technique used to improve the performance of applications by storing frequently accessed data in different cache layers. The cache layers generally lie at various levels of the application stack.

It is a common practice to use a distributed cache like NCache to implement multi-level caching in applications. NCache provides a scalable and high-performance caching solution that can store data in memory across multiple servers. In addition to this, NCache provides a feature to enable local caching in client nodes to offer even faster data access.

In this article, we will discuss how to implement multi-level caching with NCache and the benefits of using this approach.

Why Multi-Level Caching?

Before implementing multi-level caching, let's understand how storing data in multiple cache layers can benefit an application.

Let's talk about a typical application setup where data is stored in a database and retrieved by the application when needed:

• When an application needs to access data, it sends a request to the database, which retrieves the data and sends it back to the application.
• This process can be slow due to network latency and the time to retrieve data from the database.

To improve the application performance, we need to reduce the number of times the application has to query the database for the same data. This is where caching comes into play.