‘Velocity’ Preview Updates In-Memory Caching Platform

The distributed cache platform code-named "Velocity" has been updated with the third community technology preview (CTP). Microsoft project code named “Velocity” promises to speed up .NET-based Web applications.

"Velocity" is a distributed in-memory application cache platform for developing scalable, high-performance applications. "Velocity" can be used to cache any common language runtime (CLR) object and provides access through simple APIs. The key aspects of "Velocity" are distributed cache performance, scalability, and availability.

"Velocity" provides a highly scalable in-memory application cache for all kinds of data. By using cache, you can significantly improve application performance by avoiding unnecessary calls to the data source. Distributed cache enables your application to match increasing demand with increasing throughput by using a cache cluster that automatically manages the complexities of load balancing. When you use "Velocity," you can retrieve data by using keys or other identifiers, named "tags."

"Velocity" supports optimistic and pessimistic concurrency models, high availability, and a variety of cache configurations. “Velocity” includes an ASP.NET session provider object that enables you to store ASP.NET session objects in the distributed cache without having to write to databases, which increases the performance and scalability of ASP.NET applications.

Velocity also adds scalability technology to caching. You can add and remove servers from the cluster and the cache automatically rebalances itself.

To download community technology preview 3, see Microsoft Project Code Named “Velocity” Community Technology Preview 3 (CTP3). For more information about “Velocity”, see Microsoft Project Code Named “Velocity” on MSDN. For code samples, see Microsoft Project Code Name “Velocity – Samples.