Introduction

Redis (Remote Dictionary Server) is an in-memory multi-model database famous for its sub-millisecond latency. It was created in 2009 by Salvatore Sanfilippo (also known as _antirez_).

Faced with the problem of scaling some types of workloads using traditional database systems for his Italian startup, Sanfilippo began to prototype a first proof of concept version of Redis in Tcl. He later translated that prototype to C.

After open sourcing the project, with the help of Ezra Zygmuntowicz from Engine Yard, it quickly became popular with startups. Instagram and Github were some of the first companies to use a Redis implementation in their stack.