What is Windows Azure AppFabric Caching?
The AppFabric Caching service is a distributed, in-memory cache that you can use to accelerate the performance and scale of your cloud applications built on Windows Azure and SQL Azure. Caching is often used to keep frequently-queried data in-memory close to the application itself, which both reduces overhead on the database tier and also eliminates unnecessary network latency. ASP.NET developers can use the AppFabric Caching service without code changes, as pre-built session state and output caching providers enable you to activate with simple configuration changes. AppFabric Caching capabilities are also directly available using a simple API for even more flexible and customized application use. At runtime, the Cache service transparently distributes ASP.NET session/output cache data or .NET Framework objects stored in the cache across the elastic, scale-out infrastructure. Because it is delivered as a true service, AppFabric Caching has a very simple provisioning model – there is no
