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Cherokee 1.2.98, New Features
Cherokee 1.2.98 was released yesterday, as the first of two beta versions of Cherokee.1.3.
There are two major improvements scheduled for Cherokee 1.3. The first improvement is the Front-Line Cache mechanism I wrote about a few days ago. Basically, Cherokee stopped being a Web Server to become a Web Server with Web Caching capabilities. We have been aware that one of the most common implementations of Cherokee required a reverse proxy (usually Varnish or Squid) in front of it, so dynamic responses could be cached. There is nothing terribly wrong with that architecture, but it is not the optimal solution either. Front-Line Cache provides the same functionality of the tandem (web server + proxy cache), while it removing the latency introduced by the communication between Web server and Proxy-cache server. This ultimately uses the server resource much more efficiently and reduces page generation and user load times. Web servers and a Proxy Caches are very similar pieces of software, both requiring memory, a large poll of file descriptors, sockets, configuration files, long term documentation, maintenance, etc.
The cache server plus web server "duplication" will no longer be necessary. Starting in Cherokee 1.2.98 we provide a global caching mechanism so the content generated by the server can be cached. It does not matter whether it's a response from PHP, Python, Ruby, a proxied response from a back-end server, or simply content built within the own Web server (a static file that was compressed with GZip, a SSI rendered file, etc). All of them can be handled by the Front-Line Cache technology shipped in Cherokee 1.298 and onward. In testing, Front-Line Cache has been proven to boost server performance and lower page load time up to 80%.
The second major feature in Cherokee 1.2.98 is Cherokee Distribution. This is feature already has it's own post so that you can learn more about it by reading that here. It's simply, a radical change to how the Cherokee Market operates. There were many voices in the Cherokee community asking for a more open way of running the marketplace (originally Octality was the only entity empowered to operate it). Even though it was a fair petition by Cherokee's Community, it was not an easy decision to make. While you are reading this, the process for rebranding the Cherokee Market to Cherokee Distribution is still on going, so when we reach Cherokee 1.3.0 within the next few weeks, all the package repositories will be managed and maintained by community members (including ISVs).
I'd like to finish by clarifying that both features (Front-Line Cache and Cherokee Distribution) are still in beta. Both the current 1.2.98 and the upcoming 1.2.99 are beta version of the our planned Cherokee 1.3.0 release version.
I'd like to encourage you to test these new features and provide feedback (II). Let me know how these features work in your environment, with your website or data.
