Microsoft Distributed Cache - Velocity
"Velocity" is a distributed in-memory caching platform for building scalable, high-performance enterprise and web data-driven applications. Read More...
Microsoft's "Velocity" is very much similar to memcached (pronounced mem-kash-dee), but Microsoft's "Velocity" has nothing to do with The Apache Velocity Project which is an open-source Java templating platform.
I recommend all scalability, availability, and performance lovers give Velocity CTP1 a test drive.
Labels: .NET, Cache, Distributed Cache, memcached, Microsoft, Velocity
posted by Jamal Mavadat at
20:23
5 Comments:
ScaleOut Software also has been delivering fully featured, scalable, highly available distributed caching for .NET since January, 2005. The key features that Microsoft has listed for release in CTP2 and V1 (and others which will not be available in V1) are available today in ScaleOut StateServer. SOSS is also self-configuring and self-healing as a fully peer-to-peer architecture. SOSS is also very cost-effective at about $1K/server. Please see our Web site's press release (http://www.scaleoutsoftware.com) for our response to the Velocity announcement.
Unlike memcached (unless it has evolved recently), SOSS provides automatic object partitioning across the caching servers, and it also provides automatic replication for high availability. This means that you can add or remove caching servers without reconfiguring. When you include self-discovery. self-healing, parallel query, GUI management, and numerous other features, I think you will find that SOSS makes distributed caching much easier to use.
By
Bill Bain, At
9 June 2008 21:25
Thanks for the update. Checked http://www.scaleoutsoftware.com/about/releases/stateServer-06-05-08.html and sounds much matured than what Microsoft has just started now. Perhaps MS guys should be considering better approaches preventing duplication of knowledge and effort. Or maybe you're going through "Valence" story for a second time. Best of luck anyway...
Well, I believe "Velocity" could still be an alternative to SOSS as it's supposed to be built into the framework, AND it's for free!
By
Jamal Mavadat, At
10 June 2008 00:00
Thanks. Regarding whether Velocity will be free, is this really what you want to encourage? Please consider the effect it has on the marketplace for other vendors who have invested years in developing this technology. If you want angel investors and VC's to invest in Microsoft-related technologies that drive new innovations, then it's unwise to kill off the market for others just as significant customer traction emerges.
By
Bill Bain, At
10 June 2008 08:09
A hundred percent agreed, Bill! I also believe there is enough room in this software ecosystem, so that we've got shallow built-in framework provider technologies alongside few 3rd party polished commercial technologies.
As a simple example only, consider the peaceful coexistance of MS data-grid and few 3rd party state-of-the-art grids! Also notice how Microsoft attempt failed not providing built-in data-grid in WPF so made it available by SP1 at the end of the day!
As a consultant it's crystal clear to me, someday I'll be sugegsting my clients going for "Velocity" in some cases and also going for SOSS in other cases, depending on their unique requirements as well as TCO. In other words, I'm so much relaxed you'll be holding your marketplace in future should your marketing decision makers consider very few minor changes at the right moment!
Wishing every luck with your SOSS market success and a very peaceful coexistance with MS Velocity. :)
By
Jamal Mavadat, At
10 June 2008 09:47
I agree with Bill Bain that Velocity CTP1 and even CTP2 leave much to be desired. And, it will be some time before Microsoft is able to really stabalize Velocity to a level where a serious company would risk their business on it.
But, I respectfully disagree with Bill on the dangers of Velocity becoming free. I think Velocity will not kill the market for other distributed caching products even if it is free. Instad, it will only increase the total market size by raising awareness. The biggest challenge that distributed caching products like NCache are facing today is not competition from other products but a lack of awareness in the market about the benefits of distributed caching.
I strongly believe that in the end customers will consider the total cost of ownership in making their decision. And, just like Gigaspaces and Gemstone are doing fine despite Oracle and IBM entering the distributed caching space on the Java side, products like NCache will thrive in the .NET space despite Velocity.
NCache Express is FREE
NCache Express is totally free and works for a 2-server cache cluster environment. Check it out at http://www.alachisoft.com/rp.php?dest=/ncache/ncache_express.html
NCache Enterprise
NCache is the first, the most mature, and the most feature-rich distributed cache in the .NET space. NCache Enterprise is the leading enterprise level distributed cache for .NET. Check it out at http://www.alachisoft.com.
By
Iqbal Khan, At
8 October 2008 03:50
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