Use SoftReference and/or expiry to store entries in RetryContextCache implementation(s). If the map-based cache is used in a multi-VM environment, stale cache entries can easily be accumulated inadvertently because the successful processing of a previously failed item happened on a different node than the original failure. A good start would be to use SoftReferences in the map-based implementation. Expiry and more complicated features would be best left to mature cache technologies, and custom implementations of the RetryContextCache interface.