A Cache is a thread-safe logical representation of a set of data elements, analogous to a cache region in many caching systems. Once a reference to a cache is obtained (through a CacheManager), logical actions can be performed. The physical implementation of these actions is relegated to the stores. For more information about the stores, see "Configuring Storage Tiers" in the Configuration Guide for Ehcache.

Caches are instantiated from configuration or programmatically using one of the Cache() constructors. Certain cache characteristics, such as Automatic Resource Control (ARC)-related sizing, and pinning, must be set using configuration.

Cache methods can be used to get information about the cache (for example, getCacheManager(), isNodeBulkLoadEnabled(), and isSearchable()), or perform certain cache-wide operations (for example, flush, load, initialize, and dispose).

The methods provided in the Cache class also allow you to work with cache elements (for example, get, set, remove, and replace) as well as get information about the them (for example, isExpired, isPinned).