To mitigate high write API costs (PUTs), SlateDB batches writes. Rather than writing every put() call to object storage, MemTables are flushed periodically to object storage as a string-sorted table (SST). The flush interval is configurable.

To mitigate write latency, SlateDB provides an async put method. Clients that prefer strong durability can await on put until the MemTable is flushed to object storage (trading latency for durability). Clients that prefer lower latency can simply ignore the future returned by put.

To mitigate read latency and read API costs (GETs), SlateDB will use standard LSM-tree caching techniques: in-memory block caches, compression, bloom filters, and local SST disk caches.