Ehcache is an open-source, standards-based caching API that enables applications to fetch frequently used data from memory (or another nearby resource) rather than having to retrieve it from a database or other back-end system. Terracotta extends the Ehcache API so applications can create very large in-memory caches and share cached data with other applications on the network.

This chapter provides a general overview of how webMethods products use Ehcache and, more specifically, how they use the extensions enabled by Terracotta. For more detailed information for a particular product, see the product documentation.