1. AppFabric Caching Services:
Utilizing AppFabric Caching Services On-Premise and Beyond to Optimize Performance

2. About Me
Overview of Caching
Server AppFabric Caching Architecture
Demo: Server AppFabric Configuration
Server AppFabric Caching Concepts
Demo: Implementing Application Cache
Beyond On-Premise Caching
Demo: Azure AppFabric Caching
Conclusion

3. About Me Microsoft Certified Professional
Phoenix Connected Systems User Group Leadership Team
6+ years building mid-tier solutions using Microsoft technology including, but not limited to,
BizTalk Server (2006, 2010)
MSSQL Server (2000, 2005, 2008)
.NET Framework (1.1, 2.0, 3.5, 4.0)
Windows Communication Foundation
Microsoft.Web.Services3
.NET Remoting
Currently working for Cable One, Inc.

4. Overview of AppFabric Provides hosting services
Provides caching services
Provides robust tools and services for managing applications on-premise and off-premise
Tracing
Dashboard
Key point: Difference between Server AppFabric and Azure AppFabric
Windows Server AppFabric is on-premise
Windows Azure AppFabric is in the cloud
APIs attempt to be seemless

5. The Dilemma
Even though we’re light years beyond the traditional paper filing method of the past, users still find the application driven processes too slow. Users will be happy to learn that technology once again has provided a solution: Caching

6. Common Questions
How do we increase the speed of data access and the application as a whole?
How can we make our caching solutions more scalable?
How do we ensure our application is not only fast and scalable, but also maintain it’s robustness?

7. Cache Concepts Cache Distributed Caching Expiration and Eviction
Storing a copy of data closer to application logic, and away from it’s source
Increases application speed
Distributed Caching
A set of nodes in a farm that coordinate to create a unified view of a cache to a caching client
Assists in creating a scalable caching solution
Expiration and Eviction
When an object is removed from the cache because of stalenes or due to low memory conditions
Assists in maintaining a robust caching solution

8. Caching Overview

9. Server AppFabric Cache Architecture
Runs on top of Windows Server and IIS via Windows Server AppFabric Caching Services
Cache Host exists on the server as a windows service
Multiple cache servers can run in a clustered environment
Administered through PowerShell
Configuration can be shared across multiple servers through the use of a database or XML file located on a UNC share
Cache client communicates with the cluster rather than just an individual server

10. Architecture Diagram

11. Demo 1: Server AppFabric Configuration

12. Implementing AppFabric Cache
“You've effectively got a big, partitionable distributed (and optionally highly available) hashtable across multiple machines.”—Scott Hanselman
Hashtable of objects that take the form of their System.Object base class
Requires type conversion to restore them to their original type
Cache clusters are logically segmented into named caches and regions
A named cache, also referred to as a cache, is a configurable unit of in-memory storage that all applications use to store data in the distributed cache
Regions are an additional data container that you can place in the cache
Regions can be used to segregate like data by allowing you to search all cached objects in the region using descriptive strings, also known as “tags”.

13. Named Caches and Regions

14. Demo 2: Implementing Application Cache

15. Recap: Benefits of Server AppFabric Caching
Scalable:
Can restart the application without losing valuable cached data
Applications can spread session objects across the cache cluster, providing scalability
Caches any serializable CLR object and provides access through simple cache APIs

16. Where to Now??

17. Azure: Off-Premise Caching
Windows Azure provides a simple to maintain solution that allows the business to leverage Microsoft’s servers in order to save money
Implemented in code almost identically to Server AppFabric, with the only exception that Azure AppFabric Caching does not support user-created regions or tag-based searches
Unlike Windows Server AppFabric, Windows PowerShell is not used to manage the provisioned caches or the cache cluster
The Windows Azure Administration Portal is extremely easy to use and allows businesses to get a cache up and running in as little as 60 seconds
Libraries are nearly interchangeable which makes migrating from Windows Server AppFabric to Windows Azure AppFabric Caching a nearly seemless

18. Demo 3:Migrating from Windows Server AppFabric Cache to Windows Azure Cache

19. Other Cache Providers Off-Premise On-premise Amazon ElastiCache
Memcached
Proven in one blog online to be a bit faster
More oftenly stated to be more difficult to set up
Supports C#
API converts objects to strings
Object size limit: 1MB
Not as many features as Coherence and AppFabric
Coherence
On paper, appears to support more features that Server AppFabric caching
Redis
Not as many features as other cache providers
Does not support as many languages

20. Recap
Server AppFabric caching helped make our stock web service ~7.5 times faster
Azure AppFabric caching, although a bit slower, still saw decrease in response time by a multiple of 4
Azure cache host configured and started in around 60 seconds or often times less
Code can easily be migrated between off-premise and on-premise AppFabric caching solutions

21. Questions?

22. References
Introduction to Caching with Windows Server AppFabric (Beta):
Module 1–Windows AppFabric Cache (AppFabric Demos)
Windows Server AppFabric Caching Logical Architecture Diagram:
Differences Between Caching On-Premises and in the Cloud:
Wade Wegner works at Microsoft and is the Technical Evangelist Lead for Windows Azure:
Distributed Caching Showdown – Memcached vs Velocity:
Installing, Configuring and Using Windows Server AppFabric and the "Velocity" Memory Cache in 10 minutes:

23. Aditional Information
Blog
Phoenix Connected Systems User Group