Advantages of storage data caching
Server-side caching of storage data can increase virtualization density, especially when the storage subsystem is congested.
Storage data caching has the following advantages:
- Latency
- Analytical and transactional workloads have reduced query-response time because the solid-state drive (SSD) storage has lower latencies. If you use server-side caching, the average latency for a transactional workload can be reduced by half.
- Throughput
- Online transaction processing (OLTP) workloads have higher transaction rates because the SSD storage provides better throughput.
- Write throughput
- In environments where the storage area network (SAN) is congested, the flash device, which is used as a cache, can offload a significant percentage of read requests. When read requests are offloaded, the SAN can have better write throughput, and can effectively serve a larger number of clients and hosts.
- Smaller memory footprint
- If a flash cache device is configured, some workloads can perform even with a lower memory footprint.