Linux Foundation Launches Valkey

New project will serve as a free alternative to the Redis in-memory NoSQL data store

The Linux Foundation has announced that it is launching an alternative to the Redis in-memory, NoSQL data storage environment. Redis has gained popularity in recent years due to expanded interest in NoSQL, as well as the performance benefits of an in-memory data store. However, the company behind Redis recently announced a change in the licensing model, which will move from a free BSD license to the more restrictive Source Available license and Server Side Public licenses.

Linux Foundation’s new Valkey project will be a fork of Redis 7.2.4. According to the announcement, “Valkey supports the Linux, macOS, OpenBSD, NetBSD, and FreeBSD platforms. In addition, the community will continue working on its existing roadmap, including new features such as a more reliable slot migration, dramatic scalability and stability improvements to the clustering system, multi-threaded performance improvements, triggers, new commands, vector search support, and more.”

Redis says the changes to the license were not meant to affect individual users but as a way to force large cloud providers that offer Redis to customers, like AWS and Google, to kick in more for Redis development. Amazon, Google, Oracle, and other large companies are now contributing the Valkey project.

The Valkey project is available at GitHub.