Valkey
Terms related to simplyblock
Valkey is a high-performance, open-source in-memory data store and key-value database, forked from Redis following its license change in 2024. Valkey maintains compatibility with Redis protocols and APIs, offering sub-millisecond latency for caching, real-time analytics, and ephemeral data use cases. Built to remain under a permissive open-source license (BSD), Valkey is community-driven and optimized for low-latency, high-throughput applications.
How Valkey Works
Valkey operates entirely in-memory and supports multiple data structures, including strings, hashes, lists, sets, and sorted sets. It uses a single-threaded event loop model, but supports I/O and forked background operations for persistence and replication. Key features include:
- Pub/Sub messaging
- Replication and clustering
- Eviction policies for memory management
- AOF and RDB persistence options
- RESP (REdis Serialization Protocol) compatibility
Since Valkey is a drop-in replacement for Redis, existing Redis clients and tooling remain compatible.
Valkey vs Redis
Valkey was born from a community effort to maintain an open ecosystem after Redis Labs relicensed Redis under the Server Side Public License (SSPL). Here’s how they compare:
| Feature | Valkey | Redis |
|---|---|---|
| License | BSD (permissive open source) | SSPL (non-OSI approved) |
| Compatibility | Full Redis protocol support | Redis protocol |
| Community Governance | Community-led (Linux Foundation) | Commercial vendor driven |
| Enterprise Features | Open-core model | License-restricted modules |
| Use Cases | Caching, session storage, queues | Same, but with license constraints |
Valkey is positioned to remain a fully open alternative for modern applications that depend on low-latency key-value stores.
Storage Characteristics for Valkey
Though Valkey operates primarily in-memory, persistent storage is required for backups, replication logs, and snapshot recovery. To optimize performance and resilience, Valkey environments benefit from:
- Low-latency SSD or NVMe storage: Especially for AOF and RDB persistence
- Snapshot support: For rollback, DR, and staging
- High IOPS: For forked background saves and replication sync
- Thin provisioning: To manage memory-to-disk ratios
- Zone-resilient volumes: To reduce recovery time in distributed deployments
Simplyblock’s NVMe-over-TCP storage provides ideal infrastructure for running Valkey at enterprise scale.
Valkey in Kubernetes and Edge Environments
Valkey is lightweight and deploys seamlessly in Kubernetes using Helm or raw manifests. However, managing persistence and recovery in containerized environments requires robust volume handling.
Simplyblock provides:
- Kubernetes-native persistent volumes
- Volume snapshots for safe upgrades or A/B testing
- Multi-zone high availability for clustered Valkey instances
- Edge-compatible SDS for real-time applications close to users or devices
These features make Valkey ideal for latency-sensitive edge caching or distributed application state management.
Valkey Use Cases
Valkey serves as a versatile component in both modern microservices and monolithic architectures. Key use cases include:
- Application caching: Reduce backend load and improve response time
- Session storage: Track authenticated user sessions in web apps
- Real-time analytics: Store counters, metrics, and time-series summaries
- Pub/Sub messaging: Build lightweight real-time notification systems
- Task queues: Simple job scheduling in distributed systems
These use cases benefit from Valkey’s memory-speed access and simplyblock’s high-performance SDS for persistent workloads.
Simplyblock™ Enhancements for Valkey Deployments
Running Valkey with simplyblock ensures persistence without compromising speed:
- Sub-millisecond latency with NVMe-over-TCP block storage
- Erasure coding for efficient redundancy vs 3x replication
- Snapshot and clone support for dev, test, and DR environments
- QoS isolation for multi-tenant clusters
- Kubernetes-native volume lifecycle management
Benchmark results show improved tail latency and recovery times for memory-based databases using simplyblock’s SDS.
External Resources
Questions and Answers
Valkey is a community-driven fork of Redis, created after Redis became source-available. It retains full Redis compatibility while focusing on open governance and long-term open-source development. Valkey is ideal for users seeking a fully open alternative for in-memory data storage and caching.
Yes, Valkey is container-friendly and runs seamlessly in Kubernetes using Helm charts or Operators. For production workloads, pair it with NVMe-native Kubernetes storage to ensure high performance, fast persistence, and reliable pod failover.
While Valkey is memory-first, persistence via AOF or RDB snapshots still benefits from fast storage. NVMe over TCP ensures low latency and fast write speed, improving durability and recovery in enterprise deployments.
Valkey itself doesn’t include native encryption at rest. To protect persistent data files like AOFs, it’s best to use storage-level encryption-at-rest, ensuring secure and compliant deployments in regulated environments.
Yes, Valkey supports logical database separation. For secure multi-tenant deployments with strong isolation, combine it with software-defined storage that enables volume-level key management and performance segmentation.