Valkey is an open source key-value database that stores data in memory for extremely fast access. Think of it as a massive lookup table for your applications.
The project operates under the Linux Foundation with major contributions from organizations like AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle, Alibaba Cloud, and several other industry collaborators.
With a recent announcement, Valkey 9.0 has been introduced, so let's check it out.
Valkey 9.0 Arrives with Major Upgrades
Tackling some well-known problems in distributed databases, Valkey 9.0 introduces three major features: Atomic Slot Migration, Hash Field Expiration, and Multiple Databases in Cluster Mode.
The Atomic Slot Migration feature solves a scaling headache. When you add servers to handle more traffic, data needs to move between them. This process usually causes downtime and errors.
Valkey now handles this differently. It takes a snapshot and moves data in the background while both servers stay active. When done, traffic switches over instantly with no downtime.
Hash Field Expiration is another practical addition. You can now set individual fields inside a hash to expire automatically. Previously, you had to expire entire hashes or clean up manually.
This helps with things like user sessions where different pieces of data expire at different times. It reduces memory usage and eliminates manual cleanup work.
The third addition, Multiple Databases in Cluster Mode, lets you run multiple isolated databases on one cluster. You can separate staging and production environments without running separate infrastructure.
Performance got a major boost too. Valkey 9.0 delivers 40% better throughput compared to version 8.1. Some operations are 200% faster thanks to optimizations. Plus, the project claims it can now handle over 1 billion requests per second across 2,000 nodes.
You can find more details in the official press release.
Valkey
In conversation with Madelyn Olson, maintainer of Valkey
We also used this occasion to have a quick chat with Madelyn Olson, maintainer of Valkey. Here's what we talked about.
Biggest challenge with Valkey version 9
Madelyn: Launching on time was our biggest hurdle. Valkey 9.0 came a little later than planned due to the sheer volume of content our contributors shared with us. The extensive contributions gave our team rich suggestions and requests for 9.0, and we’re hard at work improving our processes and automations to better accommodate the requests from our community in future versions. You can be assured that our team was rigorous in our review and worked diligently to get 9.0 launched. We are excited for users to dive in now that it’s live.
Who should upgrade from Valkey 8 to 9 and who should stay with version 8
Madelyn: The main throughline of this version is improved stability for users running large clusters. We are now able to enable 2,000 nodes in Valkey 9.0 clusters, which could support over 1 billion requests per second. If engineers and developers want to explore this scalability, as well as hash field expiration and atomic slot migration – which are also banner features in Valkey 9.0 – they should upgrade from 8.0 to 9.0.
Role of Linux Foundation in Valkey’s development
Madelyn: The Linux Foundation has been instrumental in helping our project grow our hub of contributors, and that community is integral to our success. We’ve also seen value in housing Valkey underneath the foundation for neutrality reasons already. Time and time again – perhaps most recently with the Bitnami Helm chart issue last month – that proprietary tools can trap users. Together, the Linux Foundation and Valkey are ensuring that our code and solutions will not be locked behind paywalls, ever. For our community, our joining the Linux Foundation is a signal that Valkey’s code will always be open, which will in turn fuel our growth.
Impact of Redis 8 going open source again under AGPL license
Madelyn: It’s always a net positive when software is open sourced. Open source licenses are foundational to building trust and collaboration in this space, and we’ve championed that from day one.
Licensing is important in our world, but what has kept users excited about Valkey is our ability to innovate fast too. Our global community is really shaping the future, and continued growth, of Valkey. You can see that in the launch of Valkey 9.0 – our community made requests about where they’d like us to innovate, supported us with contributions and now we get to see the value of that work at scale. Hash field expiration is included in the latest version, for instance, which was a sought after upgrade amongst our contributors. Our trajectory isn’t slowing down, which continues to energize our community.
What comes after Valkey 9.0?
Madelyn: Looking ahead, we at Valkey are really excited about continually evolving our database features, making each version that much more delightful for our users to build high performance applications with. Without revealing too much about our long-term goals as a project, I can say that scalability is a large focus for our team. The technology industry’s pace continues to grow, and we want to ensure that open source database offerings like Valkey can meet that need for speed. With each new version, Valkey is achieving better performance and reduced costs for our users, rising to meet the exponential trajectory ahead for databases.
Get Valkey 9.0
This Valkey release is available to download on the official website. If you need pointers related to installation and configuration, then you can refer to the documentation.
Beyond that, the source code is hosted on GitHub if you want to dig into how it works or contribute to the project.
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