The Object Caching Service for Java manages Java objects within a process, across processes, or on a local disk. The Object Caching Service for Java provides a powerful, flexible, easy to use service that significantly improves Java performance by managing local copies of Java objects. There are very few restrictions on the types of Java objects that can be cached, or on the original source of the objects. Programmers use the Object Caching Service for Java to manage objects that, without the cache access, are otherwise expensive to retrieve or to create

An application server using Java, for example a Java servlet, provides three types of information: static information, dynamic information, and information that is somewhere in between. From an Object Caching Service for Java programmer's point of view, information has one of the following characteristics:

	Information that never changes, static content, the programmer handles the data efficiently using a Java Hashtable
	Information that is unique, represented by dynamic objects, the programmer must generate each time the information is requested.
	Information that is static for some period, the information is generated and changes occasionally, the programmer uses the Object Caching Service for Java.