Redis launches JSON database capabilities with RedisJSON 2.0
The data platform vendor is growing beyond its data caching roots to support more data types and full database capabilities that integrate with RediSearch indexing technology.
Data platform vendor Redis on March 15 released RedisJSON 2.0, a database technology that provides users with new capabilities to enable real-time data access.
Redis develops an open source in-memory data caching technology that serves as a foundation for its commercially supported enterprise on-premises and cloud data acceleration and database services.
Redis first released RedisJSON in 2017, with support for JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) documents.
With the new update, generally available now, the vendor is venturing beyond just supporting JSON to enable a complete JSON document database. The new database gets integrated RediSearch technology, which provides fast data query capabilities.
Redis started as an in-memory cache, but it has steadily expanded its capabilities to becoming a multimodel system of record data store.
Sanjeev MohanFounder, SanjMo
Redis includes key-value data store modules for multiple types of data, including graph databases and time series data as well as JSON, noted Sanjeev Mohan, founder of SanjMo, a data trends advisory firm. He explained that RedisJSON stores JSON data with an approach that improves read and write performance to enable high availability.
"Redis started as an in-memory cache, but it has steadily expanded its capabilities to becoming a multimodel system of record data store," Mohan said.
Accelerating real-time JSON database capabilities
A primary goal for Redis is to support real-time data use, said Yiftach Shoolman, CTO and co-founder of the firm. Real-time data applications include cybersecurity analysis and operational dashboards.
Yiftach Shoolman
The initial RedisJSON 1.0 module provided support for JSON data to be cached and accelerated. However, Shoolman noted it didn't enable users to update data using JSON data paths and lacked full support for JSON data indexing and searching.
That has changed with RedisJSON 2.0, which integrates search capability as well as the ability to index JSON data as part of a Redis database deployment. With the update, the vendor now provides its users with support not only for JSON data types, but a full JSON document database.
The RedisJSON 2.0 service integrates with RediSearch, which is running to constantly index the JSON data, Shoolman said.
To further enable full JSON database capabilities, Redis rewrote RedisJSON 2.0 in the open source Rust programming language to provide better security and performance. RedisJSON 1.0 was written in the C programming language.
Redis moving beyond its caching roots
Redis got its start as a caching layer and one of the primary deployment approaches for the vendor's technology is as a query accelerator.
Another application is as a front-end database, where data from a system of record is replicated or cached with Redis to help improve performance.
In addition, a growing number of organizations are using Redis as a primary database system of record, Shoolman said.
"The majority of our customers are using Redis today for more than just a cache," he said. "Caching is a great start, but we allow much more than that."
Yiftach Shoolman
