Version
You can check which version of Redis you are using by running the
INFO
command in the Redis CLI.
This will output a list of information about your current Redis instance, including the version number.
About Redis
Redis is open-source software that allows the user to store and maintain a persistent and durable database.
Redis has the enormous advantage of supporting a Lua interpreter, meaning that one can write code in tons of
languages,
such as Perl, Python, Java, C, C++, Ruby, among many others. Redis was developed mainly by a single programmer, which
is something to admire.
His name is Salvatore Sanfilippo, who is sponsored and supported entirely by Redis Labs, hence the name of the
database software.
It was launched around August of 2009, and the team has since expanded to include other proficient programmers of
Redis Labs, such as Pieter Noordhuis.
Redis works in a very particular way that opens up its applications to many industries, such as gaming, financial
services, media-streaming,
among many other useful applications that help Snapchat, Twitter, among many other notable technology companies run
smoothly.
Redis has significant applications in any industry that involves the quick retrieval of data. This software has seen
a recent rise in its
application for Machine Learning in fraud detection. Online fraud happens extremely quickly, and Redis is one of the
quickest readers
on information in the entire database developer landscape. Redis is used alongside other technologies to help
computers learn
and detect fraud and abnormalities at speeds and accuracies not possible before.
Redis has some characteristics that make it good for all of the above fields. First, one must consider that Redis
stores
the data almost entirely in the server's main memory, which means that data requests do not have to loop back and
forth with the server and client.
This has the result of achieving incredibly fast response times and the capacity of making tens of millions of
operations in very short periods of time.
Even advanced and newer technologies like MongoDB or Cassandra cannot achieve this level of efficiency, although
they make up for it with other advantages.
Nevertheless, for the user needing maximum speed of writing and retrieving data, Redis is the best choice.
Releases
The first release of Redis was made available to the public in August of 2009. It was around this time that much
NoSQL software
like MongoDB or Cassandra was launched, indicating that the technology is booming and has very applicable features,
which can still evolve rapidly due to the NoSQL wave being so young. We are currently on the 6.2.3 stable version of
Redis,
launched on May 3 of 2021. Redis releases are separated into candidate branches, where there are experimental stable
releases,
release candidates which then go into the widely used stable releases when approved.