Configuring caching

Cache is a storage space that duplicates previously requested data, and allows faster access to the data in the future. Correctly using caching can significantly improve the performance of your website.

Caching the content of web pages provides two primary benefits:

• Quicker loading of data (retrieving data from the cache avoids communication with slower storage spaces, such as the website’s SQL database and file system)
• Reduction of unnecessary page processing on repeated requests

The built-in caching mechanisms of Kentico work primarily on the server side, and utilize the application’s memory to store data. The system saves data into the cache in the form of cache keys. Cache keys have unique names that exactly identify the cached content. Each key stores the cached data itself (depending on the type of the cache), as well as other information such as the expiration time or dependencies.

The available caching options depend on the development model that you use to build your website. See:

• Caching on MVC sites
• Caching on Portal Engine sites