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ApsaraDB for Redis:Overview

Last Updated:Dec 21, 2023

ApsaraDB for Redis Enhanced Edition (Tair) is a cloud-based in-memory database service for enterprises. It is developed based on the Tair service of Alibaba Group. ApsaraDB for Redis Enhanced Edition (Tair) has officially been in use within Alibaba Group since 2009 and has proven its outstanding performance in a variety of scenarios, including Double 11, Youku Spring Festival Gala, Cainiao, and AMAP.

Storage types

The rapid development of the Internet makes business scenarios more diverse and complex. To meet the changing requirements, ApsaraDB for Redis Enhanced Edition (Tair), as a high-availability and high-performance NoSQL database service, provides multiple series types of instances based on storage media such as DRAM, NVM, and ESSDs. These series types are developed to meet your requirements for low-latency access, data persistence, and reduced overall costs, and provide higher performance, more data modules, and more flexible storage methods. This helps you meet business requirements in different scenarios.

Storage type

Description

DRAM-based instance

Persistent memory-optimized instance

  • Offers ultra-high cost-effectiveness. The price of persistent memory-optimized instances is 30% lower than that of ApsaraDB for Redis Community Edition instances with the same capacity. The performance of persistent memory-optimized instances reaches 90% of that of native Redis databases.

  • Supports enhanced data modules. These modules include exString (including commands that enhance Redis string functionality), exHash, and Cpc.

  • Prevents data loss caused by power failure. These instances implement persistence for each command. The system will return a success response for each write operation only after the data is persistently stored. You can use persistent memory-optimized instances as in-memory databases instead of caches.

ESSD-based instance

  • Reduces costs. These instances reduce up to 85% of costs compared with ApsaraDB for Redis Community Edition instances.

  • Stores data in cloud disks. These instances store data in ESSDs to ensure high data reliability. The capacity of an ESSD-based instance reaches hundreds of terabytes.

Purchase guide

Series type

Checkout link

Procedure

DRAM-based instances

Buy now (recommended)

Create a Tair instance

Buy now

Create an ApsaraDB for Redis instance

Persistent memory-optimized instances

Buy now

Create a Tair instance

ESSD-based instances

Millstones of Tair

In 2004, Taobao started to use caching technologies to support its business operations. The first caching technology that was put into use is frontend page caching. This technology uses Edge Side Includes (ESI) to identify web content segments that can or cannot be accelerated. Frontend page caching reduces the number of times that entire pages are fetched from the server.

The rapid growth of customer traffic on Taobao exerted more pressure on databases. Backend caching emerged in response to this situation. Backend caching has evolved over many iterations from TBStore to Taobao Database Manager (TDBM). TBStore provides services such as persisting Taobao details and verification codes. TDBM was initially used in Taobao User Center. In 2009, the large-scale and high-performance in-memory database service Tair was released based on the success of previous systems and technical experience.

Tair is one of the most popular systems of Alibaba Group. Tair can handle hundreds of millions of calls per second and has provided core online access acceleration during Double 11 events for many years.

Date

Event

October 2022

Redis 6.0-compatible DRAM-based instances were released with a 20% performance improvement than Redis 5.0-compatible DRAM-based instances of the same instance type.

July 2021

The following new series were released:

  • Persistent memory-optimized instances adopt persistent memory to provide large-capacity in-memory databases that are compatible with open source Redis. Persistent memory-optimized instances do not use disks to implement data persistence and cost 30% less than ApsaraDB for Redis Community Edition instances while delivering almost identical throughput and latency and maintaining the persistence of each operation. This helps improve the reliability of business data.

  • ESSD-based instances are developed based on ESSDs and are compatible with core data structures and APIs of open source Redis. These instances can provide large-capacity, low-cost, and persistent database services.

Tair will focus on core cloud native capabilities, such as hardware-software integration, intelligent data distribution, and integration of data storage and processing.

November 2019

Tair 3.0, or ApsaraDB for Redis Enhanced Edition (Tair) was released.

  • Redis 5.0-compatible DRAM-based instances use the multi-threading model. These instances integrate multiple Tair data modules to provide high-performance, high-compatibility database services that come with enterprise-class features.

April 2019

The Tair team was recognized as one of the top three contributors in the Redis community and delivered a public speech at RedisConf 2019.

August 2018

Tair takes the lead in hybrid-storage instances in China to separate cold data from hot data for the first time and reduce costs.

November 2017

Tair dynamic hashing provided support for the 2017 Double 11 event and was able to resolve several critical cache issues within the industry.

April 2017

Tair 2.0 was released and started to provide services to the AMAP and Youku new business units.

ApsaraDB for Memcache (OCS) was upgraded to ApsaraDB for Redis.

August 2016

Tair Smart O&M Platform was released. The release of this platform contributed to the breakthrough of hundreds of billions of sales during the 2016 Double 11 event.

March 2015

The Tair team released ApsaraDB for Redis. This release helped Tair enter the cloud era.

May 2014

The Tair team released OCS, a cloud-based caching service. After OCS was released, OCS became a basic service of Alibaba Cloud and started to provide services for OCS users.

April 2013

The Fastdump service was released. It can significantly reduce import time and access latency.

Tair was implemented on a large scale in Alimama.

October 2012

The Redis Database (RDB) cache engine was released with APIs that are similar to those used in open source Redis. This engine supports more flexible and complex data structures.

June 2011

The Local Database (LDB) persistence engine was released to meet key-value storage requirements on the Internet.

November 2009

Tair was used to support the high-volume concurrent traffic during the Double 11 event for the first time.

April 2009

Tair 1.0 was released and used in business segments such as the Taobao core system, Memory-Mapped Database (MDB) cache, and User Center.