Terracotta adds automatic resource control to Ehcache

Terracotta has announced the addition of ARC, Automatic Resource Control, to all versions of Ehcache. ARC is designed to simplify the process of configuring caching systems: a developer or systems integrator can set the maximum available memory and, optionally, give an indication of how the cache may be used, and then leave it to ARC to dynamically allocate and manage memory resources over the caches.

ARC is built into Teracotta's open source Ehcache, but is, says the company, especially useful when teamed with its proprietary BigMemory plugin for Ehcache. BigMemory sets out to allow users to configure caching that efficiently maxes out the memory of servers; with Dell, HP, Oracle and IBM releasing commodity servers that can support a terabyte of RAM, Terracotta believe that ARC will make exploiting large memory systems quicker and easier. For more detailed insight, it is possible to get feedback and statistics from ARC on how efficiently its dynamic configuration is operating. The ARC functionality is in Ehcache 2.5 and Terracotta 3.6, which both have new release candidates which should be available for download today.

Clustering specialists Terracotta acquired Ehcache in 2009, and was itself acquired by Software AG in May this year. The company offers, Ehcache, the open source caching layer for Java applications, and the Java scheduling library Quartz. It also offers commercial versions of Enterprise Ehcache, along with BigMemory, Quartz Scheduler, and a suite of those applications as Terracotta Enterprise Suite.

(djwm)