The end of an era for Redis and perhaps the beginning of a new one for Valkey. That may well be the result of Redis Labs’ controversial decision earlier this year to give its wildly popular Redis key-value store a more limited ‘source available’ license. According to in-house research by database specialist Percona, this prompts many companies to look for an alternative. In many cases, that alternative appears to be Valkey, a fork of Redis backed by the Linux Foundation.
According to the research, 83 percent of larger companies surveyed have already adopted Valkey or are testing this Redis alternative. This would be 77 percent and 70 percent for small and midsize companies, respectively. It is striking that enterprise organizations in particular are leading the change, rather than smaller companies. Large enterprises are usually not eager to shake up their database policies. On the other hand, they have more resources to pull off such a costly operation or can enlist the help of third parties.
The dissatisfaction apparently runs deep. The report paints a disconcerting picture of how this dissatisfaction has triggered an unmistakable move away from Redis to its latest open-source sibling (and other alternatives such as DragonflyDB, KeyDB and Skytable). For example, 70 percent of companies surveyed say they seek an alternative.
Rethinking database strategy
A key-value store is a type of NoSQL database that stores data as a collection of key-value pairs. It is considered a simple and efficient way to manage large amounts of unstructured data and is popular for applications that favour performance and scalability count. This contrasts with relational databases like PostgreSQL or MySQL, where consistency and integrity are the priorities.
Consequently, Redis Labs’ decision to say goodbye to its open-source roots –formerly, the product was available under the highly flexible and open BSD license– has forced many companies to rethink their database strategy. Redis has long been the most widely used solution for key-value stores and was (or still is) in use by 67 percent of the companies surveyed. That is according to figures polled by Percona, which, as a managed service provider (MSP), counts users of such solutions among its customer base.
Pay (more) or seek an alternative
With the move to the more limited ‘source available’ license, Redis has also moved away from the community and associated philosophy that once made the solution popular. The countless companies using Redis were suddenly faced with a choice: pay for licenses and potentially more limited service from their MSP or invest time and effort to find an alternative.
It is worth noting that the new license is not completely ‘closed’. Non-profit distribution and forking are still allowed. However, the new license prohibits third-party provision of managed services, which hurts parties like Percona, which offers such services.
“We don’t take issue with any organization that chooses to distribute its software using proprietary licenses,” said Percona CEO Ann Schlemmer, who makes no bones about it. “However, the Redis problem isn’t open source versus proprietary; it’s a matter of transparency versus deception. If the Redis and Valkey saga teaches young tech entrepreneurs anything, I hope they remember that transparency, honesty, and consistency are invaluable to your customers. So, tread wisely and make openness a virtue, irrespective of whether that includes open source licensing”
Less accessible
In other words, Redis is blamed for the fact that what used to be open and managed to grow a large user base that way, has now ‘suddenly’ become less accessible. This is not the first time something like this has happened. The reaction to this development is almost as predictable.
According to Percona’s research, Valkey is the obvious solution to the dilemma faced by many current Redis users. Announced in March of this year, Valkey is a fork of Redis that remains fully open-source and under the auspices of the Linux Foundation.
Since then, Valkey has been on the rise. A majority (75 percent) of Redis users are testing, adopting or seriously considering Valkey as a new key-value solution. As mentioned, not only mid-sized companies are looking to make the switch. Large enterprises in particular, most of which have huge data footprints, are at the forefront of this movement.
Big names
Valkey also boasts the support of AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle, and Ericsson. These industry giants have backed Valkey and will most likely continue to fund further development, for example, through The Linux Foundation.
Of course, the promise of open source alone is not enough to win over business customers. Support, especially in maintaining and deploying open-source solutions, is an important concern for the respondents. Of these, 76 percent think third-party support is essential for embracing open-source alternatives such as Valkey. If that is no longer allowed, the ‘open’ part pretty much becomes meaningless for many. That should be comforting news for a company like Percona.
The Percona survey is available here.
Also read: SUSE CEO: “If you want secure software, it has to be open source”