Comparing Queueing and Caching

Queues and Caches compared

• Both are techniques to achieve more scale
• More scale requires finding and “fixing” bottlenecks
• “Bottleneck” = “A narrow place”
• A slow operation at a busy place
• How to speed up?

Caching

• Is slow data retrieval the problem?
• Is it ok for the data to be a little bit stale?
• Does access follow repeating patterns?
• Can process continue even without the result?

Queueing

• Is slowness of the actual procedure the problem?
• Is the operation done for its “side effects”?
• Can the process continue even without the operation completion?