Edge Server Includes (ESI)

I开发者_StackOverflows it a good practice to use ESI's or is that an older technology? are there alternatives that would be better. I am familiar with the use of CDN's and cache servers but this ESI was typically for applications that do more than just load the front end.

ESI is fairly unknown outside the CDN context. However, I think there are a number of interesting use cases for its use 'closer' to the origin servers now that we see a lot more interest in splitting the applications that deliver Web sites into several self-contained services. An ESI-enabled cache is a good means to integrate these services into a single Web site.