[novaleaf]

i just finished implementing a similar pattern: atomic-cache (cache+eventually consistent modifications) and while it's debatable whether the pattern belongs in your "database" layer or "app" layer, you certainly do need this pattern somewhere.

For me, my orm layer is in my app, and my database is just google datastore. I have ideas for eventually writing a db caching layer as you suggest but it's rather a lot more complexity beyond the "get it working and move on" principle.

[alooPotato]

Are you using something like Objectify with the google datastore?

[novaleaf]

no, just the gcloud-node (npm) module and a home-rolled orm.

objectify looks interesting! but I'm a nodejs user, not java.