It’s not a surprise to anyone how fast technology evolves. With each passing year, apps become more advanced, and their necessity for a quicker, stabler, and more reliable service increases. MySQL is one of those things that can mess up an application’s performance if it is not finely tuned. Here is where our new tool comes in! We are proud to announce our latest technological implementation on our Speed Reaper, Managed Cloud SSD and Dedicated CPU Cloud plans: The Memcached Commander. Just as its name suggests, it helps the user easily manage an instance of the Memcached daemon and use it for their website’s dynamic cache. What does using Memcached mean in any case? Should you care? How will it help your web hosting performance? Let’s get some perspective on that!

What is Memcached?

To better understand Memcached, let’s go over what a “cache” is first. A cache is a temporary storage facility that stores data for faster access. Memory is finite, so systems cannot cache everything on a computer. Only frequently-accessed or important objects are therefore cached. Retrieving data from the database takes server resources and time. Often we need to retrieve the same data over and over again – sometimes in the same session! If it’s possible to fetch the data just once and repeatedly use it, this saves a significant amount of resources and time, meaning that the content will be delivered faster for fewer resources being consumed. Having the proper caching mechanisms in place is one of the most important things you can do to speed up the delivery of your website’s assets.

Memcached is an open-source, high-efficiency, distributed memory object caching system. Simple in nature but potent when used for dynamic web applications to facilitate quicker query execution, thus reducing database server load. Its simplistic architecture uses an in-memory key-value that caches small random data (objects or strings) that result from database calls, API calls, or webpage renderings.

On top of that, the developers designed it with ease of deployment in mind which makes it very accessible, even for non-tech savvy users. We have taken this accessibility to the next level by creating our Memcached Commander cPanel feature in order to deploy Memcached instances for users with literally one click!

How does Memcached help the user?

Now, the question you may be asking is: “How does this help me?!” The simple answer is – Speed! Speedy websites are excellent and highly sought by website owners, and you can never get enough of it. Memcached is a fantastic catalyst for speeding up the site, especially if it has a lot of dynamic content and regular database execution.

Since data is cached in the server’s RAM and not from disk, it’s faster. And since database calls arrive directly from the cache, it’s faster yet again. New database calls are made only when the requested data is not (or not yet!) cached. Remember that not all records are cacheable (frequently needed, necessary), while some are not (seldom accessed). The fact that Memcached filters these records prevent it from storing these rarely accessed files and completely utilizing the RAM chunk allocated to it, making it effective even with lower memory.

Why did we decide to use Memcached?

Here at HostArmada, we are all about innovation and performance! Giving our clients as many tools as possible to help them speed up their application is a mission we have set for ourselves. Memcached is just one of such implementations that can give users the slight edge they need over their competitors, and of course, we are always looking for server tweaks that can accomplish the same goals.

On top of that, our clients have highly requested this feature, which is something we cannot ignore!

Who can use Memcached on HostArmada?

Due to technical limitations and the infrastructural differences on our servers, we have chosen to implement the Memcached Commander on our most powerful solutions: Speed Reaper, Managed Cloud SSD, and Dedicated CPU Cloud

This decision gives our users the options to:

1) Select a solution that they need without cluttering their websites with additional services that bring no benefit.
2) This makes each of our plans unique and flexible so that users can choose when selecting their package.

How to make use of Memcached Commander?

HostArmada has made sure to think first of our client’s ease of use and accessibility. While we have covered what Memcached is and that it is now available on HostArmada, you are still most likely wondering where to find it and how to use it. It’s all rather simple! Here are the steps that you should take:

Step 1. You have to enter your cPanel through your client area or directly in the browser through the cPanel access link.

If you’d like to find out how to do that, you can check out our HostArmada cPanel access tutorial for more information regarding that.

Step 2. Then locate Memcached Commander under the “HostArmada Features” section of your cPanel. Alternatively, you can type down “Memcached commander” in the search field at the top to locate it.

Step 3. Click on the “Enable” button to turn on this feature and make use of your Memcached Commander.

Step 4. After you enable Memcached, this will turn on the process and allow it to connect to your website. You will be able to see the relevant information required to do that, including HOST and PORT, after it has been enabled.

Easy right? Well, if you have any more questions regarding the feature or would like to get more help in setting it up, don’t be afraid to reach back to us at any time as we remain 24/7 at your disposal!

Final Words

That covers all the nitty-gritty about our latest integration! We hope that this post was eye-opening for you regarding the benefits of Memcached and if you should use it on your website. Note that not all websites were made equal; thus, Memcached may not sky-rocket every site – it is a very niche technology that can make a difference if implemented correctly!