Architecture

Catalyst implements and manages Redis cache which is backed by Zoho’s powerful infrastructure. Redis is an open-source, in-memory key-value data store structure. Redis data is stored in the server’s main memory as opposed to popular databases that store the data on disk. Since the data resides in-memory, accessing it avoids seek time delays and facilitates sub-millisecond response time for real-time applications. For more information, refer to the official documentation of Redis.

Catalyst manages the behind-the-scenes functionalities of the Redis cache for you, allowing you to entirely focus on a higher-value application development. It handles the hardware provisioning and the multi-tenant architecture of the Redis cache. It also maintains compatibility with Redis APIs, enabling you to build functionality-rich applications without any hassles.

A single standard cluster in Redis caters caching services for multiple users, while Catalyst handles the segregation and allocation of resources. For example, when you create cache items for two different projects from your Catalyst account, the data of both applications might be stored in a single dedicated cluster in Redis. The identity of a cache item’s source project is uniquely marked, and the cache items in the same cluster are efficiently segregated by Catalyst.

Catalyst therefore prevents collisions of cache items of different projects in the cluster, and returns the right cache item’s value when requested. This is highly beneficial when the keynames of the cache items are the same in both the projects.