Distributed caches have evolved into an independent branch of Big Data solutions: When it comes to fast read and write access, distributed caches are the solution of choice.
Dr. Fabian Stäber gave a talk a JayDay 2013 where he introduced and compared the leading distributed cache implementations:
Based on a simple example application, the basic functionality is presented, and the specific strengths and weaknesses of the different cache architectures are highlighted and compared.
The results of this ‘shootout’ and an executive summary can be found here at /java-caches and the example application is available from GitHub.