Discussing the Use of In-Memory vs External Caching in Elixir Applications

The content features a discussion on the use of in-memory caching in Elixir, sparked by a blog post suggesting that external caching services such as Redis may not be necessary within the Elixir ecosystem. Kev-wqa, the author, expresses concern over data loss in case of app crashes, and whether in-memory caching is a common practice in production. Commenters such as josh2k44 and dcapt1990 share their experiences, citing the built-in feature ETS and alternatives like Cachex for distributed caching. They emphasize the trade-offs between speed and durability, as well as the seamless integration of Erlang libraries with Elixir. The conversation touches on potential scaling issues and the use of libraries like Nebulex as the application grows, indicating that the choice between in-memory and external caching is influenced by specific workload requirements and the ephemeral nature of the data.