Is myspace using memcache?

[Perrin Harkins]

On 6/20/07, KevinImNotSpacey <kevin.amerson at gmail.com> wrote:
> Myspace was at the top of the list for .NET sites.  Any details
> are greatly appreciated.

http://www.baselinemag.com/print_article2/0,1217,a=198614,00.asp

They are probably a pretty bad example of how to use memcached.  They
use it as a database substitute, not as a cache.  If your session ever
suddenly disappears when you're on myspace, this may be why.

Here's a favorite bit from the article:

'In other words, on MySpace the occasional glitch might mean the Web
site loses track of someone's latest profile update, but it doesn't
mean the site has lost track of that person's money. "That's one of
the keys to the Web site's performance, knowing that we can accept
some loss of data," Benedetto says. So, MySpace has configured SQL
Server to extend the time between the "checkpoints" operations it uses
to permanently record updates to disk storage—even at the risk of
losing anywhere between 2 minutes and 2 hours of data—because this
tweak makes the database run faster.'

Nice.

- Perrin