I’m deep in the lab engineering the Pixora transformation engine (using libvips + Go), and I had to make a call on caching: Redis vs. Local Disk.
Common mistake: Using Redis for everything.
Reality: RAM is fast, but RAM is expensive. If I cache every transformed image in Redis, the server bill will bankrupt the project before we even hit Beta.
My Solution: The Two-Tiered Architecture.
L1 (Redis): Stores only the "Hot" assets (the most requested thumbnails/avatars). This keeps our sub-120ms latency promise for 90% of requests.
L2 (Disk/Object Storage): Stores the processed, high-res versions. If it's not in Redis, we grab it here.
The Trade-off:
Redis gives us the raw speed to hit sub-50ms lookups.
Disk storage keeps our operating costs lean so we can pass those savings to you.
We aren't just building a CDN; we’re building infrastructure that has to survive in a low-bandwidth, high-latency market.
Building in public is all about these trade-offs. What would you have chosen? Let’s talk architecture in the comments. 👇
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