Caching is an optimization feature that can improve the performance of stateless services. When Integration Server executes a service for which caching is enabled, Integration Server places the service inputs and results in a local or distributed cache for the period of time that you specify. The next time Integration Server executes the service with the same set of input values, it returns the cached result to the client rather than invoking the service again. Integration Server returns the cached results for each service invocation with the same set of inputs until the cache expires.

Caching can significantly improve response time of services. For example, services that retrieve information from busy data sources such as high-traffic commercial web servers could benefit from caching. The server can cache the results for flows, Java services, and C/C++ services.