Whenever data gets inserted in intermediate cache unsafeReturnValues setting is ignored and previous value from cache is returned every time we do cache#put. We did not experience this slowdown before because we only inserted once per key in intermediate cache put. Now that we do partial batching and transfer of these keys/values, we really hit the wall there with multiple insertions. Adding IGNORE_RETURN_VALUES flag to put invocation is the key to resolve this issue.