/ CACHE, CACHE PROVIDERS, CACHE VENDORS, COMPARISON, ANALYSIS

A list of cache providers

Last week, we described several criteria to look at to choose a cache. This week, it’s time to list Java cache providers based on these criteria.

Java Caching System

JCS is a distributed caching system written in Java. It is intended to speed up applications by providing a means to manage cached data of various dynamic natures. Like any caching system, JCS is most useful for high read, low put applications. Latency times drop sharply and bottlenecks move away from the database in an effectively cached system.

— https://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-jcs/index.html

Name

Java Caching System

Provider

The Apache Foundation

Source

GitHub

License

Apache 2.0

Inception date

2002

Last commit

c6b852c

GitHub stars

76

Configuration

File-based (cache.ccf)
cache.ccf
jcs.default=
jcs.default.cacheattributes=\
    org.apache.commons.jcs3.engine.CompositeCacheAttributes
jcs.default.cacheattributes.MaxObjects=1000
jcs.default.cacheattributes.MemoryCacheName=\
    org.apache.commons.jcs3.engine.memory.lru.LRUMemoryCache

Sample code

 
var cache = JCS.<Long, String>getInstance("cache");       (1)
cache.put(1L, "One");                                     (2)
var value = cache.get(1L);                                (3)
System.out.println(value);
JCS.shutdown();                                           (4)
1 Get access to the cache region
2 Put
3 Get
4 Clean up

Local/distributed

Local and distributed

Non-blocking

JCache

Spring Cache

TTL

Eviction strategies

LRU

Miscellaneous

The JCS goes beyond simply caching objects in memory. It provides numerous additional features:

  • Memory management
  • Disk overflow (and defragmentation)
  • Thread pool controls
  • Element grouping
  • Minimal dependencies
  • Quick nested categorical removal
  • Data expiration (idle time and max life)
  • Extensible framework
  • Fully configurable runtime parameters
  • Region data separation and configuration
  • Fine grained element configuration options
  • Remote synchronization
  • Remote store recovery
  • Non-blocking "zombie" (balking facade) pattern
  • Lateral distribution of elements via HTTP, TCP, or UDP
  • UDP Discovery of other caches
  • Element event handling
  • Remote server chaining (or clustering) and failover
  • Custom event logging hooks
  • Custom event queue injection
  • Custom object serializer injection
  • Key pattern matching retrieval
  • Network efficient multi-key retrieval

Guava

Guava is a set of core Java libraries from Google that includes new collection types (such as multimap and multiset), immutable collections, a graph library, and utilities for concurrency, I/O, hashing, caching, primitives, strings, and more! It is widely used on most Java projects within Google, and widely used by many other companies as well.

— https://github.com/google/guava

Name

Guava

Provider

Google

Source

GitHub

License

Apache 2.0

Inception date

2010

Last commit

ba690ba

GitHub stars

42.6k

Configuration

Programmatic

 
var cache = CacheBuilder.newBuilder()
                        .maximumSize(1000)
                        .build()

Sample code

 
cache.put(1L, "One");                                     (1)
var value = cache.getIfPresent(1L);                       (2)
System.out.println(value);
cache.cleanUp();                                          (3)
1 Put
2 Get
3 Clean up

Local/distributed

Local

Non-blocking

JCache

Spring Cache

TTL

Eviction strategies
  • FIFO
  • Weight-based eviction: One can assign a weight to each entry, according to a custom algorithm, and set the cache a weight limit. Then, if a new entry would exceed the maximum weight, the "heaviest" entries are removed until the sum of the weights is below the set threshold.

Miscellaneous

Guava is a single JAR that provides cache among many other capabilities

A third-party project provides a JCache adapter

The get method accepts a Callable parameter that allows to get a value from the cache or compute it and store it if it’s not found

The API uses soft and weak references in keys and values

Allows you to attach event handlers when entries are evicted

Caffeine

Caffeine is a high performance, near optimal caching library. For more details, see our user’s guide and browse the API docs for the latest release.

— https://github.com/ben-manes/caffeine

Name

Caffeine

Provider

Ben Manes

Source

GitHub

License

Apache 2.0

Inception date

2014

Last commit

41abb08

GitHub stars

10.6k

Configuration

Programmatic

 
var cache = Caffeine.newBuilder()
                    .maximumSize(1000)
                    .build()

Sample code

 
cache.put(1L, "One");                                     (1)
var value = cache.getIfPresent(1L);                       (2)
System.out.println(value);
cache.cleanUp();                                          (3)
1 Put
2 Get
3 Clean up

Local/distributed

Local

Non-blocking

 

var cache = Caffeine.newBuilder()
                    .maximumSize(1000)
                    .<Long, String>buildAsync();          (1)

CompletableFuture<String> future =
    cache.get(1L, k -> expensiveLookup(1L));
1 Build an asynchronous cache

JCache

Spring Cache

TTL

Eviction strategies
  • FIFO
  • Weight-based eviction: One can assign a weight to each entry, according to a custom algorithm, and set the cache a weight limit. Then, if a new entry would exceed the maximum weight, the "heaviest" entries are removed until the sum of the weights is below the set threshold.

Miscellaneous

Caffeine is rewrite of Guava, inspired by its API, but with non-blocking principles at its core.

Ehcache

Ehcache is an open source, standards-based cache that boosts performance, offloads your database, and simplifies scalability. It’s the most widely-used Java-based cache because it’s robust, proven, full-featured, and integrates with other popular libraries and frameworks. Ehcache scales from in-process caching, all the way to mixed in-process/out-of-process deployments with terabyte-sized caches.

— https://www.ehcache.org/

Name

Ehcache

Provider

Software AG

Source

GitHub

License

Apache 2.0

Inception date

2009

Last commit

212c63c

GitHub stars

1.7k

Configuration

Programmatic

 
var cacheManager = CacheManagerBuilder
    .newCacheManagerBuilder()
    .withCache(
        "cache",
        CacheConfigurationBuilder.newCacheConfigurationBuilder(
            Long.class,
            String.class,
            ResourcePoolsBuilder.heap(10)
        )
    ).build();
cacheManager.init();
var cache = cacheManager.getCache(
    "cache", Long.class, String.class
);

Sample code

 
cache.put(key, value);                                    (1)
var value = cache.get(key);                               (2)
cacheManager.close();                                     (3)
1 Put
2 Get
3 Clean up

Local/distributed

Local

Non-blocking

JCache

Spring Cache

TTL

Eviction strategies
  • LRU
  • LFU
  • FIFO
  • Pluggable policy: EhCache provides an API to write your own eviction policy

Miscellaneous

Ehcache 3.x is a complete rewrite from Ehache 2.x

Terracota is the Enterprise version of Ehcache. It provides distributed capabilities.

Infinispan

Infinispan is an open-source in-memory data grid that offers flexible deployment options and robust capabilities for storing, managing, and processing data. Infinispan provides a key/value data store that can hold all types of data, from Java objects to plain text. Infinispan distributes your data across elastically scalable clusters to guarantee high availability and fault tolerance, whether you use Infinispan as a volatile cache or a persistent data store.

— https://infinispan.org/

Name

Infinispan

Provider

RedHat

Source

GitHub

License

Apache 2.0

Inception date

2009

Last commit

3dd18ce

GitHub stars

910

Configuration

Programmatic

 
var cacheManager = new DefaultCacheManager();
cacheManager.defineConfiguration("cache",
    new ConfigurationBuilder().memory().maxSize("1000").build()
);
var cache = cacheManager.<Long, String>getCache("cache");

Sample code

 
cache.put(1L, "One");                                     (1)
var value = cache.get(1L);                                (2)
System.out.println(value);
cacheManager.close();                                     (3)
1 Put
2 Get
3 Clean up

Local/distributed

Local and distributed

Non-blocking

 

CompletableFuture<String> future =
    cache.getAsync(1L, k -> expensiveLookup(1L));

JCache

Spring Cache

TTL

Eviction strategies

LFU

Miscellaneous

Infinispan is the successor of JBoss Cache
  • Interoperability: access data across multiple protocols and programming languages
  • Resilient and Fault Tolerant Data: ensure data is always available to meet demanding workloads
  • ACID Transactions: guarantee that data is always valid and consistent
  • Clustered Processing: process data in real-time without burdening resources
  • Queries: perform simple, accurate, and fast searches across distributed data sets

Coherence Community Edition

Coherence is scalable, fault-tolerant, cloud-ready, distributed platform for building grid-based applications and reliably storing data. The product is used at scale, for both compute and raw storage, in a vast array of industries such as critical financial trading systems, high performance telecommunication products, and eCommerce applications.

— https://coherence.community/latest/21.06/docs/

Name

Coherence

Provider

Oracle

Source

GitHub

License

Universal Permissive License

Inception date

2001

Last commit

5f0b968

GitHub stars

340

Configuration

File-based
coherence-cache-config.xml
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<cache-config>
    <caching-scheme-mapping>
        <cache-mapping>
            <cache-name>cache</cache-name>
            <scheme-name>local</scheme-name>
        </cache-mapping>
    </caching-scheme-mapping>
    <caching-schemes>
        <local-scheme>
            <scheme-name>local</scheme-name>
            <high-units>1000</high-units>
        </local-scheme>
    </caching-schemes>
</cache-config>

Sample code

 
var cache = CacheFactory.<Long, String>getCache("cache"); (1)
cache.put(1L, "One");                                     (2)
var value = cache.get(1L);                                (3)
System.out.println(value);
cache.close();                                            (4)
1 Get a reference to the cache
2 Put
3 Get
4 Clean up

Local/distributed

Local and distributed

Non-blocking

 

var cache = CacheFactory
                .<Long, String>getCache("cache")
                .async();
CompletableFuture<String> future = cache.get(1L);

JCache

Spring Cache

TTL

Eviction strategies
  • MFU and MRU scaled on a logarithmic curve
  • LRU
  • LFU
  • Pluggable policy: EhCache provides an API to write your own eviction policy

Miscellaneous

Oracle bought Coherence from Tangsol in 2007

Commercial versions are available:

  • Standard
  • Enterprise
  • Grid
  • Clustering and Data Sharding
  • Scalability and High Avalability
  • Disk-Based Persistence
  • Key-Value Data Store
  • Parallel Queries
  • Efficient Aggregation
  • In-Place Processing
  • Sophisticated Event Model

Ignite

Distributed Database For High-Performance Computing With In-Memory Speed

— https://ignite.apache.org/

Name

Ignite

Provider

GridGain

Source

GitHub

License

Apache 2.0

Inception date

?

Open-Sourced

2014

Last commit

73a687d

GitHub stars

4k

Configuration

Programmatic

 
var cacheCfg = new CacheConfiguration<Long, String>();
cacheCfg.setOnheapCacheEnabled(true);
cacheCfg.setEvictionPolicyFactory(
    () -> new LruEvictionPolicy<>(1000)
);
cacheCfg.setName("cache");
var cfg = new IgniteConfiguration();
cfg.setCacheConfiguration(cacheCfg);
ignite = Ignition.start(cfg);
var cache = ignite.getOrCreateCache("cache");

Code sample

 
cache.put(1L, "One");                                     (1)
var value = cache.get(1L);                                (2)
System.out.println(value);
ignite.close();                                           (3)
1 Put
2 Get
3 Clean up

Non-blocking

 

IgniteFuture<String> future = cache.getAsync(1L);         (1)
1 Ignite provides its own asynchronous primitives, which are different from the JDK’s

JCache

Spring Cache

(provided by Ignite)

TTL

Eviction strategies
  • LRU
  • FIFO
  • Sorted: Entries are removed in order, so that they need to implement Comparable or you need to configure you own Comparator implementation

Miscellaneous

Core features:

  • Distributed SQL
  • Multi-tier Storage
  • Co-located Compute
  • ACID Transactions
  • Machine Learning
  • Continuous Queries

GridGrain offers an enterprise version of Ignite named GridGain In-Memory Computing Platform

Geode

Apache Geode is a data management platform that provides real-time, consistent access to data-intensive applications throughout widely distributed cloud architectures.

Apache Geode pools memory, CPU, network resources, and optionally local disk across multiple processes to manage application objects and behavior. It uses dynamic replication and data partitioning techniques to implement high availability, improved performance, scalability, and fault tolerance. In addition to being a distributed data container, Apache Geode is an in-memory data management system that provides reliable asynchronous event notifications and guaranteed message delivery.

— https://github.com/apache/geode

Name

Geode

Provider

Pivotal

Source

GitHub

License

Apache 2.0

Inception date

2015

Open-Sourced

2019

Last commit

a21df0b

GitHub stars

2k

Configuration

File-based and programmatic

 
var cache = new CacheFactory().create();
var factory = cache.<Long, String>createRegionFactory();
factory.setEvictionAttributes(
    EvictionAttributes.createLRUEntryAttributes(1000)
);
var region = factory.create("cache");

Code sample

 
region.put(1L, "One");                                    (1)
var value = region.get(1L);                               (2)
System.out.println(value);
cache.close();                                            (3)
1 Put
2 Get
3 Clean up

Non-blocking

JCache

Spring Cache

TTL

Eviction strategies

LRU

Miscellaneous

GemStone is the company that initially developed Geode. In 2010, SpringSource acquired GemStone.

[…​] main features and key functionality:

  • High Read-and-Write Throughput
  • Low and Predictable Latency
  • High Scalability
  • Continuous Availability
  • Reliable Event Notifications
  • Parallelized Application Behavior on Data Stores
  • Shared-Nothing Disk Persistence
  • Reduced Cost of Ownership
  • Single-Hop Capability for Client/Server
  • Client/Server Security
  • Multisite Data Distribution
  • Continuous Querying
  • Heterogeneous Data Sharing

Hazelcast

Disclaimer

I work for Hazelcast at the time of this writing.

Hazelcast is a streaming and memory-first application platform for fast, stateful, data-intensive workloads on-premises, at the edge or as a fully managed cloud service.

— https://hazelcast.com/

Name

Hazelcast

Provider

Hazelcast

Source

GitHub

License

Apache 2.0

Inception date

2008

Last commit

de91d6b

GitHub stars

4.6k

Configuration

File-based and programmatic

 
var hazelcast = Hazelcast.newHazelcastInstance();
hazelcast.getConfig()
         .getMapConfig("cache")
         .getEvictionConfig()
         .setSize(1000);
var map = hazelcast.getMap("cache");

Code sample

 
map.put(1L, "One");                                       (1)
var value = map.get(1L);                                  (2)
System.out.println(value);
hazelcast.shutdown();                                     (3)
1 Put
2 Get
3 Clean up

Non-blocking

 

CompletionStage<String> stage = cache.getAsync(1L);       (1)

JCache

Spring Cache

TTL

Eviction strategies
  • LRU
  • LFU
  • Pluggable policy: Hazelcast provides an API to write your own eviction policy

Miscellaneous

Hazelcast provides an Enterprise edition with additional features
  • Distributed computation, data structures, and events
  • Streaming data processing
  • Connectors to read from/write to systems like Apache Kafka, JMS, JDBC and HDMS
  • Querying with SQL and predicates
  • CP subsystem for distributed coordination use cases
  • JCache implementation
  • Replication of web sessions (filter, Tomcat, Jetty based)
  • Administration and monitoring utilities including Management Center, JMX, metrics and diagnostics

For reference, the following Maven project shows a simple key get-put for each cache.

I tried my best to provide accurate, objective information. Please let me know in the comments if something is wrong.

To go further:

Nicolas Fränkel

Nicolas Fränkel

Developer Advocate with 15+ years experience consulting for many different customers, in a wide range of contexts (such as telecoms, banking, insurances, large retail and public sector). Usually working on Java/Java EE and Spring technologies, but with focused interests like Rich Internet Applications, Testing, CI/CD and DevOps. Also double as a trainer and triples as a book author.

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A list of cache providers
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