The above is one of the burning questions from Azure devs, and with all other cache offerings from Microsoft Azure along with their sub categories the confusion gets multiplied on what to choose.

Currently there are (and probably not for a much longer in the future) 3 types of cache services available in Azure.

• Azure Redis Cache
• Managed Cache Service
• In-Role Cache (Role based Cache)

Ok now let me the answer the question straightly (especially if you’re lazy read the rest of the post) – For any new development Redis cache is the recommended option

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/azure/dn766201.aspx

So what is the purpose of the other 2 cache offerings ?

I blogged about the Managed Cache Service and Role based Cache some time back. (I highly recommend to read the article here before continue the reading) . The below diagram has the summary.

Read this blog post to get to know how to create and use Role based cache and Azure Managed Cache service.

Pricing, future existence and other details

Role Based Cache :

Since the Role based cache is technically a web/worker role regardless of whether it is co-located or dedicated, it is a cloud service by nature. So you create a cloud service in Visual Studio and deploy it in the cloud services, you can see and manage these roles under the cloud service section in the portal. And cloud service pricing is applied based on the role size. Role based cache templates are still available in Azure SDK 2.5 and you can create them, but not recommended. The future versions of the Azure SDK might not have the Visual Studio project template option for the Role based cache.

Azure Managed Cache Service :

The blog post shows how to create the Managed Cache in the Azure management portal and how to develop applications using C#.NET. But if you try to create the Managed Cache service now you will not find the option in the Azure management portal, because it’s been removed. At the time of writing of that blog it was available. The reason why it’s been removed is very obvious because Microsoft recommends Redis cache as alternative. The apps which use the Managed Cache service will continue to function properly but highly recommended to migrate to Redis Cache. Still the creation of Managed Cache option is available in Azure PowerShell. I’m not discussing about the pricing of the Azure Managed Cache service since it’s been discontinued. I have a personal feeling that Managed Cache service will soon be eliminated from Azure services, Microsoft might be waiting for that last customer to move away from Managed Cache Service 😛

Azure Redis Cache :

This is the newly available feature Redis on Windows cache option. The below link has information about the usage pricing and other information about the Azure Redis Cache.

http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cache/