A method for execution by one or more computing devices of a massive data ingestion system includes receiving data for storage in the massive data ingestion system. The method further includes storing a data segment of the data in a cache memory of the massive data ingestion system. The method further includes retrieving, based on one or more retrieval parameters, the data segment from the cache memory. The method further includes error encoding, in accordance with error encoding parameters, the data segment to produce a set of encoded data slices, wherein the error encoding parameters include a pillar width number and a decode threshold number, and wherein the decode threshold number is a minimum number of encoded data slices needed to reconstruct the data segment. The method further includes storing the set of encoded data slices in a set of storage units of the massive data ingestion system.