Introduction
To overcome the performance limitations of traditional relational databases, applications - ranging from those running on a single machine to large, interconnected grids - often use in-memory databases to accelerate data access. While in-memory databases and caching products increase throughput, they suffer from a number of limitations including lack of support for large data sets, excessive hardware requirements, and limits on scalability.
InterSystems Caché is a high-performance object database with a unique architecture that makes it suitable for applications that typically use in-memory databases. Caché's performance is comparable to that of in-memory databases, but Caché also provides:
- Persistence - data is not lost when a machine is turned off or crashes
- Rapid access to very large data sets
- The ability to scale to hundreds of computers and tens of thousands of users
- Simultaneous data access via SQL and objects: Java, C++, .NET, etc.
This paper explains why Caché is an attractive alternative to in-memory databases for companies that need high-speed access to large amounts of data.
