A host of cloud industry players have pledged their support for the open source Redis alternative since the company switched to an ‘available source’ license setup last month.
Redis shocked the open source community in late March with its decision to switch to a dual-license approach that would see the company adopt a more restrictive software distribution model.
According to the proposals, Redis releases will be available under RSALv2 (Redis Source Available License) and SSPLv1 (Server Side Public License).
This move to an ‘open source’ approach marked a departure from the company’s traditional setup, which allowed developers to freely use the source code for commercial purposes.
Redis’ move drew criticism from open source developers and prompted calls for a new open source ‘fork’ – or alternative – to be made available as soon as possible.
Last week, the Linux Foundation stepped up to the plate on this front, announcing its intention to launch ‘Valkey’, an open source alternative to Redis’ in-memory data storage.
The Linux Foundation said the decision to create an open source alternative was due to the widespread popularity and use of Redis since its creation in 2009.
For more than a decade, developers have used Redis’ in-memory data storage capabilities for caching, data analysis and as a higher-bandwidth data storage alternative to back-end databases, the foundation said.
“Developers ranked Redis as the sixth most used database in Stack Overflow’s 2023 developer survey, and it was among the three most valued,” the foundation said in a statement.
“To continue to improve this important technology and enable smooth distribution of the project, the community created Valkey, an open source high-performance key value store.”
Valkey will support Linux, macOS, OpenBSD, NetBSD and FreeBSF platforms, the organization announced in a blog post.
“Additionally, the community will continue to work on its existing roadmap including new features such as more reliable slot migration, dramatic improvements to the scalability and stability of the clustering system, multi-threaded performance improvements, triggers, new commands, vector search support and more.”
Cloud giants welcome open source Redis alternative
Several major industry stakeholders welcomed the Linux Foundation’s move, including AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle, Ericsson and Snap Inc.
All have confirmed their support for Valkey and aim to make contributions that “support the long-term health and sustainability” of the project, according to the foundation.
Madelyn Olson, a former Redis maintainer, co-creator of Valkey and principal engineer at AWS, said the creation of Valkey will allow contributors to “pick up where they left off and continue to contribute to the vibrant open source community.”
Moving forward, Valkey will follow an open governance model, the creators said, and a technical leadership committee has been established to oversee the development of the Redis alternative.
Chris Aniszczyk, technical director at the Linux Foundation and Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), said keeping Valkey in the hands of the community will prevent any rapid changes in licensing and potential future disruption.
“Valkey is the successor to the fully open source code built by long-time Redis contributors and maintainers. Fostering open collaboration that benefits everyone, not just one organization, is critical to building long-term, sustainable open source communities,” he said.
“Also, having this project in the hands of a foundation rather than a single company means that Valkey will be managed by the community without sudden license changes that destroy trust and disrupt the open source level playing field.”
Aniszczyk initially warned of community restraint following the Redis announcement last month. Speaking with IT Pro on the situation with KubeCon 2024 in Paris, he said that while the move was disappointing, an alternative would inevitably become available.
Redis’ move marked the latest turn toward more restrictive licensing schemes in the open source space. In mid-2023, HashiCorp revealed plans to change its source code license to the BSL (Business Source License), which prohibits commercial use.
MongoDB previously made its own changes, which caused a similar reaction to that seen during HashiCorp’s change.