ScaleOut vs Ncache?

Question

Hi guys,

I'm evaluating both of this third-part vendors for distributed cache, does anyone already compared them and has some opinion which one is better?

Regards, Atanas

Answer 1

Here are some key differences between ScaleOut StateServer (SOSS) and NCache for .NET deployments. SOSS focuses on combining high scalability with maximum ease of use. As such, it automatically integrates fully coherent client-side caching, data partitioning, and replication for high availability so that these features do not have to be configured by the user. SOSS provides extensive management tools, such as a.NET Object Browser which lets you examine the properties of cached objects, and a parallel backup/restore facility. Also, SOSS integrates "parallel method invocation" which enables parallel map/reduce-style data analysis. This feature makes it very easy to analyze a large collection of cached objects with one API call, and it has been shown to deliver highly scalable performance. SOSS has been on the market since 2005, and version 5.0 with enhanced cloud support, LINQ-based parallel query, and security enhancements will be available shortly.

Answer 2

I just came this post and would like to add that I am an old user of NCache and have a very good expereince with the working and performance of this product.

William L. Bain's post was meant to give differences between the two reputed caching solutions but I dont see any mention about NCache so here are some features of NCache that probably will make it distinct from ScaleOut.

1. NCache offers partioned-replica cache that gives you scalability through partitioning, reliability through replication and availability of data against data loss and node failure. You also have the option to use replicated, partitioned, local , client or mirror cache with NCache

2. NCache allows you use read and write-through so that you can be sure your cache is never out of sync from database.

3. With the Bulk operations features, you can combine multiple get or write calls, this reduces bandwidth consumptions and the operation is much faster than making many individual get or write calls.

4. Event and polling based synchronization

5. Object queries

6. Pre-load cache with data

7. Auto-start of cache on windows startup

8. NCache also gives NHibernate support

9. Client cache for faster results. The client cache sits with the application and hold most frequent used data. The client cache is synced with the master cache and provides efficient and better read/write results

10. Enahnced security features

NCache is also great for ASP.NET sessions. It lets you cache your session-state in cache without needing any code change. All you need is to modify Web.config and you are ready to use caching for your ASP.NET application.

NCache comes with a monitoring utility called NCache Monitor that lets you see Topology used, cache uptime, items count, port no, events history and more. The NCache Manager (a GUI tool for managing caches) also integrates a statitics window where you can monitor real-time cache activity including evictions, additions, reads, writes, updates, expirations, read and write through requests and more.