Amazon ElastiCache is a fully managed service that allows you to use in-memory data stores in the cloud.
Key Points for Amazon ElastiCache
- ElastiCache provides fully-managed implementation of two open-source in-memory data stores
- Memcached
- Redis
- Enables high performance – to the tune of sub-millisecond response times.
- Ideal for Key-Value based Databases, but works with SQL Databases as well.
- Supports detailed monitoring statistics via CloudWatch.
- Use Cases:
- Gaming Leader-boards
- Session Stores
- Geo-spatial Services
- Real-Time Analytics
Following diagram shows a conceptual view of how ElastiCache works:
Image courtesy of AWS
Memcached vs Redis
Following chart highlights the key attributes of the two open-source in-memory data stores Amazon supports:
In simple terms:
- Go with Memcached when you need a simple in-memory data store (or if you need multi-threaded support)
- Go with Redis when you need feature-rich in-memory data store
Pricing
Amazon ElastiCache is billed for following components:
- Nodes – per hour
- Price varies by Node instance type
- You save if you use Reserved Instances
- Backup Storage – per GB per month
- Data Transfer
- Between Zones – standard data transfer rates apply
- Between Regions – standard data transfer rates apply
External Resources