Hibernate Distributed 2nd Level Cache Provides 'free' replication?

I have been exper开发者_如何学运维imenting with Hibernate 3.6 and I am wondering about the capabilities of the provided infinispan distributed cache.

I have a requirement to have database replication between my main site and my disaster recovery site.

While it is possible to configure PostgreSQL to replicate, I am thinking that it might cause the same data to be sent twice from the main to the DR site. My application is expected to have a lot of updates, so that's something to keep in mind. Since this would be over a constrained WAN link, it feels like a lot of data would be sent and that just doesn't look like a good idea.

Can infinispan be configured to replicate between the two sites such that the underlying database doesn't need to ever be replicated itself? If so, how? How bandwith intensive would it be?

Postgresql >=9.0 has very good replication, use it. You shouldn't replicate cache to DR center, if You have a lot of updates. You shouldn't replicate enything other than data needed to recovery.

DR Center == some backup <> load balancing etc.

the Hibernate cache will keep lots of data in memory that won't be flushed"

It depends. You can flush data manually, you can set flush mode to auto,commit etc.