The Enterprise Library Caching Application Block lets developers incorporate a local cache in their applications. It supports both an in-memory cache and, optionally, a backing store that can either be the database store or isolated storage. The application block can be used without modification; it provides all the functionality needed to retrieve, add, and remove cached data. Configurable expiration and scavenging policies are also part of the application block.

When building enterprise-scale distributed applications, architects and developers are faced with many challenges. Caching can help them to overcome some of these challenges, including the following:

• Performance. Caching improves application performance by storing relevant data as close as possible to the data consumer. This avoids repetitive data creation, processing, and transportation.
• Scalability. Storing information in a cache helps save resources and increases scalability as the demands on the application increase.
• Availability. By storing data in a local cache, the application may be able to survive system failures such as network latency, Web service problems, and hardware failures.

This section includes the following topics:

• Introduction to the Caching Application Block
• Developing Applications Using the Caching Application Block
• Key Scenarios
• Design of the Caching Application Block
• Extending and Modifying the Caching Application Block
• Deployment and Operations
• Caching QuickStart

More Information

For related information, see the following patterns & practices guides and documents:

• Application Architecture for .NET: Designing Applications and Services
• Caching Architecture Guide for .NET Framework Applications
• Enterprise Library home page on MSDN
• Enterprise Library on the Codeplex Web site

The following are external pluggable caching providers that you can evaluate:

• NCache Express from Alachisoft is a free .NET distributed cache