Imagine you have an Oracle Analytics Data Flow that ingests a dataset pulling from your database on a daily schedule. This data flow is business-critical because it populates a dataset used in a workbook report that stakeholders rely on. On a busy day, however, the source database might be overwhelmed by multiple processes competing for resources, causing your data flow to take longer to complete. Or, you're dealing with a dataset created from a complex query and as a result, data flow execution time is increased. These delays don't just affect reporting-they can stall crucial decision-making and slow down your entire analytics pipeline.

That's where caching comes in. Data flows can pull data from already-cached sources, dramatically accelerating execution times. By caching your input dataset(s) and setting the Use Source Cache When Available flag, your data flow leverages the caching system in Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC). Under the hood, this system uses ADW tables, which bring additional performance benefits such as high-speed query execution.