The NCache team is excited to announce the release of NCache 5.3 SP6.1! This update is available exclusively for the NCache Open Source edition, continuing our commitment to providing a lightweight, reliable distributed caching solution for developers, testing environments, and small-scale deployments while maintaining full compatibility with modern .NET platforms.
With this release, NCache Open Source modernizes its core server architecture by upgrading to .NET 8, unlocking native runtime performance optimizations and broad ecosystem client support. To ensure a predictable, highly manageable, and focused open-source offering, this version also introduces defined deployment boundaries and standardizes on the high-availability Replicated Cache topology.
NCache Open Source Edition remains completely free to use under its applicable open-source license, with the full source code publicly accessible on GitHub. To learn more about all alignment updates in this release, read through the full NCache 5.3 SP6.1 release notes.
Platform Update to .NET 8
NCache Open Source cache servers are now fully built on the .NET 8 runtime, ensuring your caching tier benefits from the latest performance enhancements, garbage collection improvements, and execution efficiencies. While the underlying server tier utilizes .NET 8, it retains robust compatibility across a wide landscape of client applications. Supported client frameworks include:
- .NET 9 and .NET 8
- .NET 7 and .NET 6
- .NET Framework 4.8
Standardized Replicated Cache Topology
To maximize data redundancy and simplify cluster orchestration out of the box, the Open Source edition now natively supports the Replicated Cache topology exclusively. This architecture guarantees automatic data replication across all active cluster nodes, providing high availability, rapid read performance, and seamless failover protection for smaller production or staging environments.
Tailored Deployment Resource Limits
This service pack establishes distinct resource limits designed to optimize host resource footprints while preserving true multi-node distributed caching mechanics:
- Cluster Node Limit: Clusters are configured to support a maximum of 3 cache nodes per cluster, giving teams plenty of room to implement high availability and node redundancy.
- Maximum Cluster Cache Size: The maximum cumulative cache size across the entire cluster is capped at 4GB, preventing accidental memory overruns and ensuring predictable memory utilization on your infrastructure.
Supported Operating Systems
NCache 5.3 SP6.1 Open Source servers provide versatile cross-platform flexibility, supporting deployment across the following environments:
- Windows: Windows Server 2025, Windows Server 2022, Windows Server 2019, as well as Windows 11 and Windows 10 for developer workstations.
- Linux: Any major Linux distribution fully supported by the .NET 8 runtime ecosystem.
Get Started with NCache 5.3 SP6.1
Ready to accelerate your applications with an agile, community-supported distributed cache? You can download the new version or schedule a technical discussion with our engineers to see how NCache optimizes application performance and scales your architecture. We look forward to hearing from you soon!
