diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/serializer/versioning/versioning.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/serializer/versioning/versioning.go
index b0ea728fa71..ced184c91e5 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/serializer/versioning/versioning.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/serializer/versioning/versioning.go
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ import (
 	"encoding/json"
 	"io"
 	"reflect"
+	"sync"
 
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1/unstructured"
 	"k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime"
@@ -88,21 +89,34 @@ type codec struct {
 	originalSchemeName string
 }
 
+var identifiersMap sync.Map
+
+type codecIdentifier struct {
+	EncodeGV string `json:"encodeGV,omitempty"`
+	Encoder  string `json:"encoder,omitempty"`
+	Name     string `json:"name,omitempty"`
+}
+
 // identifier computes Identifier of Encoder based on codec parameters.
 func identifier(encodeGV runtime.GroupVersioner, encoder runtime.Encoder) runtime.Identifier {
-	result := map[string]string{
-		"name": "versioning",
+	result := codecIdentifier{
+		Name: "versioning",
 	}
+
 	if encodeGV != nil {
-		result["encodeGV"] = encodeGV.Identifier()
+		result.EncodeGV = encodeGV.Identifier()
 	}
 	if encoder != nil {
-		result["encoder"] = string(encoder.Identifier())
+		result.Encoder = string(encoder.Identifier())
+	}
+	if id, ok := identifiersMap.Load(result); ok {
+		return id.(runtime.Identifier)
 	}
 	identifier, err := json.Marshal(result)
 	if err != nil {
 		klog.Fatalf("Failed marshaling identifier for codec: %v", err)
 	}
+	identifiersMap.Store(result, runtime.Identifier(identifier))
 	return runtime.Identifier(identifier)
 }
 
diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/serializer/versioning/versioning_test.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/serializer/versioning/versioning_test.go
index 0522a6827ef..14d598ff5b7 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/serializer/versioning/versioning_test.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/serializer/versioning/versioning_test.go
@@ -381,3 +381,16 @@ func TestCacheableObject(t *testing.T) {
 
 	runtimetesting.CacheableObjectTest(t, encoder)
 }
+
+func BenchmarkIdentifier(b *testing.B) {
+	encoder := &mockSerializer{}
+	gv := schema.GroupVersion{Group: "group", Version: "version"}
+
+	for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
+		id := identifier(gv, encoder)
+		// Avoid optimizing by compiler.
+		if id[0] != '{' {
+			b.Errorf("unexpected identifier: %s", id)
+		}
+	}
+}
diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/plugin/pkg/audit/log/backend.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/plugin/pkg/audit/log/backend.go
index e1c948f62ae..2ef2cc6ece9 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/plugin/pkg/audit/log/backend.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver/plugin/pkg/audit/log/backend.go
@@ -44,18 +44,18 @@ var AllowedFormats = []string{
 }
 
 type backend struct {
-	out          io.Writer
-	format       string
-	groupVersion schema.GroupVersion
+	out     io.Writer
+	format  string
+	encoder runtime.Encoder
 }
 
 var _ audit.Backend = &backend{}
 
 func NewBackend(out io.Writer, format string, groupVersion schema.GroupVersion) audit.Backend {
 	return &backend{
-		out:          out,
-		format:       format,
-		groupVersion: groupVersion,
+		out:     out,
+		format:  format,
+		encoder: audit.Codecs.LegacyCodec(groupVersion),
 	}
 }
 
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ func (b *backend) logEvent(ev *auditinternal.Event) bool {
 	case FormatLegacy:
 		line = audit.EventString(ev) + "\n"
 	case FormatJson:
-		bs, err := runtime.Encode(audit.Codecs.LegacyCodec(b.groupVersion), ev)
+		bs, err := runtime.Encode(b.encoder, ev)
 		if err != nil {
 			audit.HandlePluginError(PluginName, err, ev)
 			return false