ApsaraDB for Redis instances have multiple advantages compared with self-managed Redis databases deployed on your servers, such as high data security, easy O&M, and optimized kernel.

Item ApsaraDB for Redis Self-managed Redis
Security protection Precautionary measures: Precautionary measures:
  • Requires a self-managed network security system, which is expensive and difficult to build.
  • Comes with risks of data leaks due to security vulnerabilities in the default access configuration of open source Redis.
  • Does not have an account authentication system.
In-process protection: implements SSL encryption. For more information, see Configure SSL encryption. In-process protection: requires a third-party tool to implement SSL encryption.
Post audit: supports audit logs. For more information, see View audit logs. Post audit: does not provide the auditing feature.
Backup and restoration Performance-enhanced instances of the ApsaraDB for Redis Enhanced Edition (Tair) support the data flashback feature that allows you to restore data to a specific point in time. For more information about performance-enhanced instances, see Performance-enhanced instances. For more information about the feature, see Use data flashback to restore data by point in time. Only full data restoration is supported.
O&M management
  • Supports more than ten groups of metrics and a minimum monitoring frequency of 5 seconds. For more information, see Monitoring metrics.
  • Supports the configuration of alert rules. For more information, see Alert settings.
  • Allows you to create instances of different architectures based on your business requirements and change specifications or architecture.
  • Supports large key analysis based on snapshots. This feature has high accuracy and does not cause performance loss. For more information, see Offline key analysis.
  • Requires a more complex third-party monitoring tool to monitor services.
  • Stops services when you change the specifications or architecture. The operation to change the specifications or architecture is complex.
  • Supports large key analysis based on sampling, which can be inaccurate.
Deployment and scaling Supports instant activation and elastic scaling. Requires a long period of time to complete hardware procurement, hosting of data centers, and machine deployment. You must manage node relationships when you add nodes.
High availability (HA)
  • Supports the single-zone HA solution. For more information, see Single-zone HA solution.
  • Supports the zone-disaster recovery solution. For more information, see Zone-disaster recovery solution.
  • Uses an independent central module to ensure HA. This module ensures stable and efficient decision-making and helps prevent split-brain issues.
  • Allows you to deploy an HA architecture in Sentinel mode in a data center.
  • Allows you to deploy a zone-disaster recovery architecture in Sentinel mode.
  • Uses the Sentinel mode to ensure HA. The Sentinel mode is costly and has a low decision-making efficiency during peak hours. Split-brain issues may occur, which can affect your services.
Kernel optimization
  • Provides performance-enhanced instances of the ApsaraDB for Redis Enhanced Edition (Tair) based on the multi-threading model. For more information about performance-enhanced instances, see Performance-enhanced instances. The performance of a performance-enhanced instance is three times that of a standard instance with the same specifications.
  • Provides storage-optimized and persistent memory-optimized instances of the ApsaraDB for Redis Enhanced Edition (Tair) to support large-capacity storage and command-level persistence. For more information, see Storage-optimized instances and Persistent memory-optimized instances.
  • Instances of Redis 6.0 or later support multiple I/O threads to enhance performance. The performance may increase by up to twice the original performance, but CPU utilization also becomes high.
  • Uses a storage service such as SSDB or Pika as persistent storage. However, these storage services are not fully compatible with the Redis protocol and can manage hot and cold data only at the key level. These storage services are difficult to manage, and it is expensive to transfer large keys between memory and disks in these services.
Memory Provides 100% memory availability. Memory overheads caused by disaster recovery, O&M management, scaling, and data persistence (such as write-time replication of forks) are borne by Alibaba Cloud and are not counted towards instance memory.

For example, if you create a 64 GB ApsaraDB for Redis instance, the available memory capacity is 64 GB.

Requires a reserve of 25% to 40% of memory for disaster recovery, O&M management, and scaling.

For example, if you purchase two 64 GB Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances to build master-replica Redis instances, the available total memory capacity is usually less than 45 GB.

Note ApsaraDB for Redis is fully compatible with open source Redis. For more information, see Which version of Redis is ApsaraDB for Redis compatible with? You can connect to a database of an ApsaraDB for Redis instance in the same way as you connect to an open source Redis database. As such, you can choose any client that is compatible with the Redis protocol to connect to an ApsaraDB for Redis database. For more information, see Use a client to connect to an ApsaraDB for Redis instance.