Supportsoft Glossary

Temporary Storage Improving Web Performance

Content - Caching is a temporary storage facility that places data that most frequently needs to be accessed close to either the user accessing it or the system that needs it. With a cache, instead of needing to go to a slower/distant place to get the information (e.g., from a server/database) repeatedly, you can retrieve it instantly from the cache, allowing great speed and consequently great improvement in performance.

Caching can occur in a variety of places, including on a user's web browser. Many times when someone visits a page, image or script, these items will be stored in the browser cache, permitting faster loads when someone returns to the page again. Web servers, applications, and a variety of other entities utilise memory cache in order to quickly return various results from computations or results from database queries. 

The efficient use of caches is beneficial. Caches allow less bandwidth to be used, faster applications may be run and server loads are decreased. If caching was not available, even a simple task such as retrieving a homepage would be delayed and result in a higher operating cost for the infrastructure because of the periodic download of each digital asset.

Again, however, there can be issues with caches, since, when these caches contain outdated or bad data, problems can arise, i.e., inconsistencies will occur. In cases where original content has been changed, there are ways to refresh/invalidate outdated caches.