Redis In-Memory Data Store (Interview)

VMware signs the paychecks for Salvatore and Pieter Noordhuis

Redis is an open source, advanced key-value store and data structure server wherein keys can contain strings, hashes, lists, sets and sorted sets

Redis internals consist of ANSI C with an evented model

Non-blocking replication has always been a Redis design goal

Replication in Redis is async

Salvatore’s Redis toolbox includes the Redis Ruby gem and Sinatra

Chances are you can find a Redis library in your favorite language

The C client is the only officially supported wrapper

Salvatore thinks the NoSQL moniker isn’t perfect, focusing too much on performance, but it frames a discussion

Redis Pub/Sub is perfect for real-time apps

GitHub’s adoption of Redis in Resque helped fuel the growth of the project

Redis users tend to use it as a database, as a messaging bus, or as a cache

Salvatore thinks hosted solutions like Redis-to-Go need to add more value like more frequent backups and seamless upgrades.

Blizzard uses an 8-node Redis install in serving avatars for WoW

Ezra Zygmuntowicz and GitHub were among the first “few brave users”

After a few months Salvatore noticed a dip in adoption , but he trusted his gut and stuck with it