Paweł

2023/09/15

Spring Boot Cache optimisation and management

Caching is one of the most effective ways to improve an application’s performance, and Spring Boot offers extensive catching capabilities. In this article, we will take a look at the catching techniques in Spring Boot, the cache that is available to default providers, and present the advantages and disadvantages of this approach.


What is catching?

Catching is the practice of storing copies of the results of expensive operations in memory to avoid re-executing them. In the context of a web application, catching can apply to the results of database queries, calculations, or data retrieved from external services. It can be compared to the CPU cache – once a given information has been generated once, its subsequent use is much faster.


Cache providers in Spring Boot

Spring Boot allows an easy integration with different cache providers, simplifying a choice of the best solution for your project. Here are some of the popular providers:

  • - Caffeine: More advanced, offers different strategies for removing objects from the cache, such as TTL (Time To Live).

  • - EhCache: Allows extended configuration and is very effective in clustered environments

  • - Redis: used mainly in distributed systems, offers data persistence and various integrity mechanisms.


How to turn on catching in Spring Boot?

First we need to turn on the Cache support for our application. Simply add the @EnableCaching annotation above the main class of our application or above the configuration class. Below is the example code.

@SpringBootApplication
@EnableCaching
public class Application {

 public static void main(String[] args) {
   SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
 }
}

Done! Now we can start using the cache in our application.


Practical usage of caching

Once caching is turned on, you can use the @Cacheable annotation over the methods whose results you want to store in the cache. Spring Boot automatically manages this process.

@Service
public class TaskService {

 @Cacheable(value = "task", key = "#taskId")
 public Task getTaskById(Long taskId){
  // Zapytanie do bazy danych lub inne kosztowne operacje
   return new Task();
 }
}


Advantages and disadvantages of caching

Advantages:

  • - Increased Performance: Significant reduction of response times, especially when operations are resource-intensive
  • - Scalability: Allows many more users to be served without increasing infrastructure resources
  • - Resource Savings: Reduced load on servers and databases


Disadvantages:

  • - Complexity: Cache management can be difficult, especially in complex environments
  • - Data Integrity: Risk of having data that is obsolete or outdated
  • - Management Costs: Incorrectly configured cache can lead to performance issues and may require additional administration


Conclusion

Spring Boot caching is a powerful tool, if used correctly, can significantly increase the performance and scalability of an application. Choosing the right cache provider and conscious management of it are key to achieving optimal results. Although caching brings many benefits, it also brings with it some challenges that the developer must overcome to avoid data integrity issues and memory management issues.