WebSphere® eXtreme Scale is
used to front a traditional database and eliminate read activity that
is normally pushed to the database. A coherent cache can be used with
an application directly or indirectly using an object relational mapper.
The coherent cache can then offload the database or backend from reads.
In a slightly more complex scenario, such as transactional access
to a data set where only some of the data requires traditional persistence
guarantees, filtering can be used to offload even write transactions.
You can
configure
WebSphere eXtreme Scale to
function as a highly flexible in-memory database processing space.
However,
WebSphere eXtreme Scale is
not an object relational mapper (ORM). It does not know where the
data in the data grid came from. An application or an ORM can place
data in an
eXtreme Scale server.
It is the responsibility of the source of the data to make sure that
it stays consistent with the database where data originated. This
means
eXtreme Scale cannot
invalidate data that is pulled from a database automatically. The
application or mapper must provide this function and manage the data
stored in
eXtreme Scale.
Figure 1. ObjectGrid as a database buffer
Figure 2. ObjectGrid as a side cache