Redis Use Case Examples

Introduction

If you’re just getting started with Redis, there are a few important things you need to know. You probably already understand what Redis is: a lightning-fast, in-memory, key-value data store. You likely know that it’s open source and can be used as a cache, database and message broker. However, these facts don’t necessarily explain exactly what Redis can do for you. That’s where common use cases come into play, demonstrating different ways that a product has successfully been used to solve problems. In this article, we’ll talk about some Redis use case examples to help illustrate how this data store might work for you.

Common Redis Use Case Examples

The following examples represent some of the most common Redis use cases:

• Session Caching: One of the most well-known applications of Redis is the use of it as a session cache. What makes Redis a superior choice compared to other options for session stores? In a word: persistence. With latency in the sub-millisecond range and high availability, Redis is the natural choice for managing credentials, user profile data and session state.

• Full Page Caching: Not only can Redis act as a cache for basic session data, but it can also provide a platform for full page caching. What sets Redis apart in this arena is the level of consistency it offers– even when instances of Redis are restarted, your users won’t notice any slowdowns in page load times. Compared to native PHP full page caching, this is a significant improvement. If you’re using either Magento or WordPress, plugins are available to make it even easier to use Redis for full page caching.

• Queueing: Redis has certain characteristics that make it an ideal candidate for use as a message queue. If you’ve ever used “push” and “pop” actions to manage lists in a programming language like Python, you’ll have no trouble using Redis as a queue. Try searching for “Redis queues” if you’re looking for a bit more inspiration or direction– you’ll find a variety of open-source implementations of Redis queueing to get you started.

• Leaderboards: Because Redis stores all of its data in memory, it excels at incrementing and decrementing. This makes the data store a terrific choice for real-time leaderboard functionality. To harness the power of Redis and create a leaderboard, all you need to do is take advantage of the “sorted set” data structure, which allows you to maintain a unique list of users sorted by score. Scores can be updated every time they change, resulting in a real-time ranked leaderboard.

• Machine Learning: If you want to build and train machine learning models efficiently, you’ll need the ability to crunch through large volumes of live data and make decisions in a fraction of a millisecond. Redis is a smart solution for data-driven applications that rely on machine learning. Its blazing-fast response time and in-memory data storage offer the perfect match for the needs of machine learning.

• Pub/Sub Functionality: The last of our Redis use case examples involves utilizing the data store for pub/sub (publish and subscribe) functionality. This may be the most underrated application of Redis, because the range of use cases for pub/sub is so vast. Redis pub/sub can be used for connections with social networks, image sharing, triggering other scripts and even chat apps.

Conclusion

It’s clear that Redis offers a unique way to model and store your data, and it can be used to solve a broad range of problems. The Redis use case examples we covered in this article showed how Redis can be used for caching, queueing, leaderboard use and pub/sub; although these examples represent some of the most common uses of Redis, they don’t cover the full range of Redis implementations. If your application could benefit from an in-memory data store that offers high availability, scalability and flexible data structures, Redis may be a good fit. With these examples in mind, you can get a better idea of how Redis can work for you and how to incorporate it into your own applications.