What is Tair (Enterprise Edition)? - Tair (Redis® OSS-Compatible)

Instance storage media

Tair (Enterprise Edition) is a high-availability, high-performance distributed NoSQL database optimized for low latency, durable persistence, and cost efficiency. It offers three storage media — DRAM, persistent memory (NVM), and enterprise SSD (ESSD) — each balancing performance, durability, and cost for different workloads.

Storage medium	Features
Memory-optimized (DRAM)	Up to 3x the read/write performance of a same-spec Redis Open-Source Edition instance, powered by a multi-threaded model. Performance whitepaper for Redis Open-Source Edition, Yitian-powered Redis, and Tair memory-optimized instances. Proprietary enhanced data structures: Includes exString (with enhanced Redis String commands), exHash, exZset, GIS, Bloom, Doc, TS, Cpc, Roaring, Search, and Vector. These structures streamline code and boost performance. Enterprise-grade features: data flashback for point-in-time restore, Global Distributed Cache, and proxy query cache. Enterprise-grade encryption: TLS-encrypted connections and TDE.
Persistent memory-optimized (NVM)	About 30% lower cost than a same-capacity Redis Open-Source Edition instance, with ~90% of Redis Open-Source Edition performance. Persistent Memory Performance Whitepaper. Enhanced data structures: Includes exString (with enhanced Redis String commands), exHash, and Cpc. Command-level persistence on power failure: each write returns only after persisting to storage, enabling use as an in-memory database rather than just a cache.
Disk-based	As low as 15% the cost of a Redis Open-Source Edition instance. About 60% of Redis Open-Source Edition performance. Performance whitepaper for disk-based (ESSD) instances and Performance whitepaper for disk-based (SSD) instances. Stores data on ESSDs or SSDs with capacity up to hundreds of terabytes for high data reliability. Built on the Alibaba Cloud TairDB storage engine: data persists to disk while memory accelerates requests. Compatible with most Redis 6.0 data structures and commands.

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Tair history

In 2004, Taobao adopted frontend page caching with Edge Side Includes (ESI) to reduce full-page fetches from the server.

As traffic grew, backend caching evolved through TBStore and Taobao Database Manager (TDBM). In 2009, building on these predecessors, Alibaba released Tair as a large-scale, high-performance in-memory database service.

Today, Tair (Enterprise Edition) handles hundreds of millions of calls per second across Alibaba Group and has powered Double 11 workloads for years.

Date	Event
July 2024	Redis 7.0-compatible DRAM-based instances were released with comparable performance to Redis 6.0-compatible DRAM-based instances.
October 2022	Redis 6.0-compatible DRAM-based instances were released with a 20% performance improvement than Redis 5.0-compatible DRAM-based instances that have the same specifications.
July 2021	The following new series types were released: Persistent memory-optimized instances: use 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 Redis Open-Source Edition instances while delivering almost the same throughput and latency as Redis Open-Source Edition instances and maintaining the persistence of each operation. This helps improve the reliability of business data. ESSD/SSD-based instances: store data in ESSDs or standard SSDs and are compatible with the core data structures and APIs of open source Redis. ESSD/SSD-based 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 computing.
November 2019	Tair 3.0 or Tair (Enterprise Edition) was released. Redis 5.0-compatible DRAM-based instances use the multi-threading model. These instances integrate multiple Tair data structures 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 took the lead in introducing 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 new business units AMAP and Youku. 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 in the Internet industry.
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.