The Open Source Zone

JCS is a distributed caching system written in java for server-side java applications. It is intended to speed up dynamic web applications by providing a means to manage cached data of various dynamic natures. Like any caching system, the JCS is most useful for high read, low put applications. Dynamic content and reporting systems can benefit most. However, any site that repeatedly constructs pages, dropdowns, or common search results from a database that is updated at intervals (rather than across categories continuously) can improve performance and scalability by implementing caching. Latency times drop sharply and bottlenecks move away from the database in an effectively cached system.

The JCS goes beyond simply caching objects in memory. It provides several important features, necessary for any Enterprise level caching system:

• Memory management
• Disk overflow (and defragmentation)
• Element grouping
• Quick nested categorical removal
• Data expiration
• Extensible framework
• Fully configurable runtime parameters
• Remote synchronization
• Remote store recovery
• Non-blocking "zombie" (balking facade) pattern
• Optional lateral distribution of elements via HTTP, TCP, or UDP
• Remote server chaining (or clustering) and failover

These features provide a framework with no point of failure, allowing for full session failover including session data across multiple servers.