Multi-cache backend

Replicante will likely introduce a dependency on caching solutions at some point. At first, a single redis instance, with replication of course, will be supported.

Why delay improving?

• We don’t cache things yet, no need to improve performance yet.
• Add complexity to both code and operations.
• This will be needed to scale past a single cache node, until that happens there is no need.

Potential improvement

If a single cache instance becomes too large of a burden or causes too much damage when it becomes unavailable, introduce a special cache backend to shard cached data:

1. Namespace cache keys (if not already done).
2. Add a new cache backend “multi-cache”.
3. It is configured with multiple actual caches (redises).
4. Set a default cache if a namespace/key does not match any rule.
5. Introduce some namespace -> cache mapping rules (configuration file? coordinated/dynamic config?)
6. Multi-Cache backend transparently sends requests to the desired instance.

Downsides the new solution/idea

• Complexity of the code.
• Complexity and operational overhead.