1. A method, comprising: receiving, by a system including at least one processor, a request for a data element; determining whether the data element is available in a data cache; based on determining that data element is not available in the data cache, conveying a directive to retrieve the data element from a storage layer disparate from the data cache; receiving the data element; recording the data element in the data cache according at least in part to a cache retention protocol; and in response to a retention interval of the cache retention protocol elapsing, retaining within the storage layer a recent version of the data element.