In the last blog I wrote about the importance of implementing 10GbE over 1GbE in your Web 2.0 infrastructure and what features to look for in a 10GbE NIC…since they are not all the same. In this blog we are going to look at Memcached and our experience in accelerating access to data for improved user experience.
Memcached is a widely used distributed database caching technology, implemented in tens of thousands of web implementations, including sites such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Salesforce.com, Wikipedia, and Craigslist. Memcached accelerates dynamic web applications and is now an important part of many social networking infrastructures.
Memcached improves the performance of distributed dynamic web and database applications by caching dynamic object requests and reducing the volume of accesses to the database and storage tiers. This dynamic caching can increase the transaction rates of dynamic web applications and reduce database load. Memcached can either utilize unused memory in application servers or be deployed as a dedicated tier in the database, creating a large, shared pool of virtual object-based cache accessible to all servers.
In our Lab and at MyYearbook.com we experienced some additional performance improvements using the Solareflare 10GbE NIC along with its unique OpenOnload application acceleration middleware which reduced the overall overhead associated with Memcached accesses. The result is increased transaction rates and reduced response times for web applications!
In testing performed with a Solarflare SFN5122F 10GbE server adapter, Memcached response times measured using the Memslap benchmark at 200K transactions/sec were cut in half, from 134μs to 65μs.
Come to Couch Conf on July 29th in San Francisco and discover how you too can improve Web 2.0 application performance with Solarflare technology.
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Guest Blogger: Tim Dales, Solarflare Communications
