1.3. JBoss Data Grid Benefits

Benefits of JBoss Data Grid

Massive Heap and High Availability

In JBoss Data Grid, applications no longer need to delegate the majority of their data lookup processes to a large single server database for performance benefits. JBoss Data Grid completely removes the bottleneck that exists in the vast majority of current enterprise applications.

Example 1.1. Massive Heap and High Availability Example

In a sample grid with one hundred blade servers, each node has 2 GB storage space dedicated for a replicated cache. In this case, all the data in the grid is copies of the 2 GB data. In contrast, using a distributed grid (assuming the requirement of one copy per data item) the resulting memory backed virtual heap contains 100 GB data. This data can now be effectively accessed from anywhere in the grid. In case of a server failure, the grid promptly creates new copies of the lost data and places them on operational servers in the grid.

Scalability

Due to the even distribution of data in JBoss Data Grid, the only upper limit for the size of the grid is the group communication on the network. The network's group communication is minimal and restricted only to the discovery of new nodes. Nodes are permitted by all data access patterns to communicate directly via peer-to-peer connections, facilitating further improved scalability. JBoss Data Grid clusters can be scaled up or down in real time without requiring an infrastructure restart. The result of the real time application of changes in scaling policies results in an exceptionally flexible environment.

Data Distribution

JBoss Data Grid uses consistent hash algorithms to determine the locations for keys in clusters. Benefits associated with consistent hashing include:

• cost effectiveness.
• speed.
• deterministic location of keys with no requirements for further metadata or network traffic.

Data distribution ensures that sufficient copies exist within the cluster to provide durability and fault tolerance, while not an abundance of copies, which would reduce the environment's scalability.

Persistence

JBoss Data Grid exposes a CacheStore interface and several high-performance implementations, including the JDBC Cache stores and file system based cache stores. Cache stores can be used to seed the cache and to ensure that the relevant data remains safe from corruption. The cache store also overflows data to the disk when required if a process runs out of memory.

Language bindings

JBoss Data Grid supports both the popular Memcached protocol, with existing clients for a large number of popular programming languages, as well as an optimized JBoss Data Grid specific protocol called Hot Rod. As a result, instead of being restricted to Java, JBoss Data Grid can be used for any major website or application.

Management

In a grid environment of several hundred or more servers, management is an important feature. JBoss Operations Network, the enterprise network management software, is the best tool to manage multiple JBoss Data Grid instances. JBoss Operations Network's features allow easy and effective monitoring of the Cache Manager and cache instances.