We Compared ScyllaDB and Memcached and… ScyllaDB Lost

ScyllaDB and Memcached were compared head-to-head in a collaborative vendor-neutral benchmark. Both systems maximized disk and network bandwidth under similar conditions, sustaining comparable performance overall. Memcached stored 65% more items in RAM and showed better latencies for individual requests, while ScyllaDB required data modeling changes (wide partitions) to saturate network throughput and showed better latencies for pipelined requests. Memcached's Extstore needed additional IO threads to saturate disk I/O. The comparison reveals architectural tradeoffs: Memcached excels with simple key-value models and pipelining, while ScyllaDB better supports complex data models, persistence, and distributed replication. Both solutions efficiently utilize hardware when properly configured.