Персистанс у него - это очень вторичная фича, которую они добавили не так давно, как я понял, чисто для быстрого старта после сбоя/перезапуска.
"Like a data grid, Diffusion stores values in memory. Traditionally, data grids are optimized for query and primarily support a polling paradigm. In Diffusion, the data grid is optimized for a realtime, event-driven communication. Often deployed as a specialized cache, data grids offload processing from a backend system. Diffusion offers the same benefit but is designed to deliver realtime streams to a high number of subscribed clients."