14 DAY TRIAL // Project Code Named "Velocity" Community Technology Preview 1 was unveiled at the Microsoft Tech Ed 2008 conference and made available for download as of June 3, 2008. Described by the company as a distributed in-memory caching platform, Velocity is designed to integrate with .NET Framework applications and to provide not only a high level of data accessibility, but also high-speed performance in accessing information. Set up as a scalable infrastructure for .NET Framework 3.5 applications, Velocity comes with support for Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Server 2008, Windows XP SP3 and Windows Vista SP1.
"Velocity is a distributed in-memory application cache platform for developing scalable, high-performance applications. Velocity can be used to cache any type of data that is accessed frequently online. Velocity is fully integrated with ASP.NET, allowing developers to cache ASP session data without accessing backend databases," explained Fausto Ibarra, Director of Product Marketing BEA Systems.
Essentially, what Velocity does is to make unnecessary certain calls to the data source. This is possible because of the in-memory application cache it provides to .NET products, and due to the fact that the cache is independent of a strict type of data. The cached data is, of course, synonymous with an increase in application performance, as calls are no longer going all the way to the source.
"An ideal scenario for using Velocity is to cache application data across the entire web farm. Velocity allows the information cache to be scaled similarly to how website hosting scales across a large server farm or across a cluster of machines. Velocity's information cache can be scaled as if it were a single unified entity while providing high availability to the cached data," Ibarra added.
In online scenarios involving a retail outlet, Velocity can contribute to cutting down the load on the database back-end by directing repeated requests for the same data to the cache. At the same time, Microsoft did not throw the "distributed" reference in the description of Velocity for nothing. Applications with Velocity implemented will be able to scale as much as necessary in order to meet the volume of requests. "Velocity can be configured to run as a service that can be accessed over the network or it can be run embedded within the application," Ibarra said.
Microsoft Project Code Named "Velocity" Community Technology Preview 1 (CTP1) is available for download here.