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

Tair (Enterprise Edition) is a cloud-based in-memory database service for enterprises, developed from Alibaba Group's internal Tair service. In use within Alibaba Group since 2009, Tair has proven its outstanding performance in various scenarios, such as Double 11, the Youku Spring Festival Gala, Cainiao, and AMAP.

Instance storage media

Tair (Enterprise Edition) is a high availability (HA), high-performance, and distributed NoSQL database built on three core principles: low access latency, reliable data persistence, and low overall cost. Tair uses DRAM, persistent memory (NVM), and enterprise SSD (ESSD) storage media to offer various product types. These products provide enhanced performance, more data structures, and flexible storage options to meet different business needs.

Storage medium	Features
Memory-optimized (DRAM)	Exceptional performance: Uses a multi-threaded model to deliver read and write performance up to three times that of a Redis Open-Source Edition instance with the same specifications. For more information, see Performance whitepaper for Redis Open-Source Edition, Yitian-powered Redis, and Tair memory-optimized instances. Rich set of proprietary enhanced data structures: Includes exString (with enhanced Redis String commands), exHash, exZset, GIS, Bloom, Doc, TS, Cpc, Roaring, Search, and Vector. These structures help you streamline code, improve overall business performance, and focus on business innovation. Support for many enterprise-grade features: Includes data flashback for point-in-time restore, Global Distributed Cache, and proxy query cache. Support for advanced enterprise-grade encryption: Includes TLS-encrypted connections and TDE.
Persistent memory-optimized (NVM)	High cost-effectiveness: Compared to the Redis Open-Source Edition of the same capacity, the price is about 30% lower, and the performance can reach 90% of the Redis Open-Source Edition. For more information, see the Persistent Memory Performance Whitepaper. Support for enhanced data structure modules: Includes exString (with enhanced Redis String commands), exHash, and Cpc. Data persistence on power failure: Provides robust, command-level persistence. Each write operation returns only after it is successfully persisted. This lets you use Tair as an in-memory database, not just a cache.
Disk-based	Low cost: Costs as little as 15% of a Redis Open-Source Edition instance. High performance: Delivers about 60% of the performance of a Redis Open-Source Edition instance. For more information, see Performance whitepaper for disk-based (ESSD) instances and Performance whitepaper for disk-based (SSD) instances. Disk storage: Stores data on enterprise SSDs (ESSDs) or SSDs. Capacity can reach hundreds of terabytes, which ensures high data reliability. Data distribution: Uses the Alibaba Cloud TairDB storage engine. Data is persisted to disk, and memory is used to accelerate requests. High compatibility: Compatible with most data structures and commands of Redis 6.0.

Purchasing guide

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The birth and development of Alibaba Cloud Tair

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

The rapid growth of customer traffic on Taobao placed more pressure on its databases, which led to the emergence of backend caching. Backend caching evolved over many iterations, from TBStore to Taobao Database Manager (TDBM). TBStore was used to persist Taobao details and verification codes, and TDBM was initially used in the Taobao User Center. In 2009, building on the success and experience of these previous systems, Alibaba released Tair, a large-scale, high-performance in-memory database service.

Today, Tair (Enterprise Edition) is one of the most widely used systems within Alibaba Group. It can handle hundreds of millions of calls per second and has played a critical role in accelerating online access during Double 11 events for many 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.