As a globally recognized streaming platform, Netflix offers a seamless entertainment experience to over 240 million users with its highly personalized user interface and outstanding system stability. Whether you're lounging on your sofa in Hong Kong or grabbing a coffee in the U.S., Netflix is always there to serve you the most engaging content at any time. So, what's the tech secret behind all this? One of the answers lies in Netflix's collaboration with AWS and the EV Cache system, specifically designed for efficient caching.
At the AWS re:Invent conference, Netflix's engineering team revealed the design details of their caching system and the inner workings of their global data replication architecture. This not only provided deep insights into the technology's operation but also showcased how to efficiently tackle the challenges of global data traffic.
Netflix's mission is to "bring entertainment and joy to audiences around the world," and achieving this mission comes with immense challenges. For instance, when you open Netflix and click on your favorite show, have you ever experienced waiting for more than a minute? Hardly ever. This is thanks to the powerful caching system that Netflix has built globally, ensuring that users can start streaming content instantly, no matter where they are.
However, none of this is a walk in the park. EV Cache is a distributed system designed by Netflix for efficient caching, where "EV" stands for Ephemeral Volatile Cache. While "Volatile" suggests impermanence, in reality, the data in EV Cache is stored on SSDs and achieves remarkable stability and availability through multi-region data replication.
The system can process over 3 billion data requests per second and has stored more than 14.3 PB of data, relying on globally distributed AWS infrastructure for support.
Data replication in caching systems may seem counterintuitive, as cached data is typically used for short-term access. However, Netflix's unique business requirements make data replication essential. The global data replication service at Netflix consists of multiple microservices, leveraging AWS's Kafka, SQS, and distributed caching architecture. Its core design goal is to enhance data processing efficiency.
As Netflix continues to see a rise in users and data volume, finding ways to reduce operational costs has become a critical issue. Recently, Netflix has achieved some progress in performance and cost optimization.
