Configurable Caching for Published Asset Previews in Catalogs

Reference: IBM Case TS017201519 – Slow Loading of Published Assets in Catalog

Background: We have been facing performance issues when previewing published assets in IBM Knowledge Catalog (IKC). During periods of heavy usage, the preview loading times significantly increase, and at times, users are unable to preview assets at all. This has impacted our ability to efficiently access cataloged data, especially during peak hours.

We propose the following potential enhancement for Catalog area:

Configurable Cache for Asset Previews: Introduce a configurable caching mechanism for asset previews in the catalog. The cache would store metadata or data previews after the first request and reuse that cached information for subsequent preview requests during the configured cache period.

• The cache should be refreshable during off-peak hours to ensure that users are not impacted during times of heavy usage.

• Provide administrators the ability to define the cache duration and configure cache behavior at the catalog, asset type, or connection level.

Benefits of the Enhancement:

• By enabling caching for asset previews, the overall performance of the system would improve, especially for users accessing frequently used assets.

• Reducing the real-time data fetching during peak usage would minimize system load, leading to a more efficient and scalable solution for large user bases.

• Configurable caching would allow organizations to tailor the caching settings according to their usage patterns and resource availability

Conclusion:

Given the performance bottleneck we are experiencing, we believe that implementing a configurable cache for data previews in IKC would significantly enhance the user experience and system efficiency.