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Memcached
Memcached is a high‑performance, distributed memory caching system designed to optimize dynamic web applications by alleviating database load. It temporarily stores key-value pairs in RAM to accelerate data retrieval and reduce latency for frequently accessed data..
Technical Overview
Memcached is an open-source, high-speed, in-memory key-value store primarily utilized as a caching solution. Designed to be simple yet powerful, it helps reduce the number of times a database or API must be queried by caching the results of calls. Clients of Memcached connect to its server through a network socket, typically communicating via a simple text-based protocol.
Architecture & Communication
Memcached operates in a client-server architecture where multiple application nodes interact with a pool of Memcached servers. These servers are distributed without clustering logic; the client implements hashing to distribute keys. The default communication ports are 11211, over both TCP and UDP, though in many deployments only TCP is used owing to reliability concerns.
Deployment Considerations
Memcached is widely deployed alongside web frameworks (like Django, Rails, or PHP) to improve scalability. It does not provide persistence or replication by design, focusing solely on performance. The simplicity of the protocol and statelessness make Memcached extremely fast but reliant on proper application logic for handling cache invalidation and fallback.