Redis vs. Valkey for multi-cloud flexibility

Today, most organizations aren’t just in the cloud. They’re in more than one. Sometimes that’s a strategic decision. Other times, it’s the result of mergers, customer requirements, or regulations. Whatever the reason, building real-time apps across cloud boundaries adds complexity.

Caching is often one of the places that complexity shows up. One team uses ElastiCache. Another runs Memorystore. Someone else is managing Redis Open Source themselves. They all speak Redis (more or less) but each behaves a little differently. That architecture fragmentation creates data siloes, slows development, and increases support overhead.

This blog looks at how we at Redis offer a better foundation for multi-cloud and hybrid environments. Redis Cloud and Redis Software offer

the same experience across clouds and on-prem deployment models, so teams can build once and run anywhere. Forks like Valkey may look compatible on the surface, but they can lead to hidden costs and rework when your architecture evolves.

If you want to stay flexible across cloud providers, Redis helps you do that without compromise.

How Redis and Valkey compare in multi-cloud environments

Redis and Valkey share a common origin. Both started from the same open source Redis codebase, and at a glance, they may seem interchangeable. But under the surface, they’ve taken different paths.

Valkey is a fork of Redis 7.2 created in 2024, originally launched by AWS and now governed under the Linux Foundation. It operates under an open governance model, which encourages transparency and collaboration, but also means there's no single entity responsible for long-term roadmap delivery or enterprise support. The pace of development is slower, and the surrounding ecosystem, such as clients, tools, and integrations, is still in its infancy.

Meanwhile, many cloud-native services that advertise “Redis compatibility” don’t actually run Redis or even Valkey. Services like Amazon ElastiCache and Google Cloud Memorystore use modified forks of Redis or Valkey. Their behavior can diverge significantly, especially when it comes to persistence, pub/sub, replication, and recently introduced commands.

Quick comparison of commonly used in-memory data stores for each provider:

For architects building across multiple environments, these differences matter. What works in one cloud may not work the same way in another. Core capabilities like Redis Streams or high availability features may behave differently. Even the monitoring tools and client libraries might not carry over cleanly.

Redis avoids this fragmentation. Whether you're running Redis Cloud or Redis Software, you get the same commands, the same data structures, and the same developer experience across providers, regions, and deployment models.

3 Benefits of Redis in multi-cloud and hybrid deployments

Benefit 1: True cross-cloud and cross-deployment availability

Redis gives teams flexibility in how and where they deploy. Redis Cloud is available as a managed service on AWS and Google Cloud, while Azure Managed Redis (AMR) is built on the same technology and available as a first-party service on Azure. Redis Software can run on those clouds as well, plus in your own Kubernetes clusters, inside a VPC, or on physical infrastructure. You can also Bring Your Own Cloud, deploy it in other public clouds like OCI and Tencent Cloud, or in highly secured, air-gapped environments.

This level of portability is hard to match. Redis is the only in-memory data platform that offers full support for both self-managed deployments and managed services across every major cloud provider. If you're building across environments, or want to retain the option to move between them, Redis keeps your architecture consistent.

Valkey doesn’t offer the same deployment options. There is no official Azure service, and most managed offerings based on Valkey are tightly coupled to a single cloud. That might work for single-cloud apps, but it limits long-term flexibility.

Benefit 2: Avoiding fragmentation with Valkey-based services

Redis offers the same features, APIs, and operational behavior across all deployment models. Whether you use Redis Cloud, Azure Managed Redis, or Redis Software, you get a consistent developer experience. That includes all the new features in Redis 7.4 and Redis 8+ such as 150 more commands and 8 more data structures compared to Redis 7.2, plus advanced capabilities like native vector search, hybrid queries, Redis Query Engine, and Redis Data Integration (RDI). You don’t have to worry about whether that latest Redis feature you just discovered will work in your environment.

Teams can use the same Redis clients, libraries, and commands across environments. That means developers don’t need to relearn APIs or deal with unexpected behavior when applications move between staging, production, or clouds. Monitoring, tooling, and automation pipelines work the same way everywhere.

Valkey-based services don’t offer the same level of consistency. The cloud-native forks lag behind Valkey open source. Sometimes they diverge from the core behavior entirely, making it harder to predict how features will perform. These inconsistencies can force teams to spend more time testing, troubleshooting, and working around differences. Inconsistent behavior leads to inconsistent results. With Redis, what you build is what you get, no matter where you run it.

Benefit 3: Consistent capabilities and developer experience

Valkey and Valkey-based services can look compatible with Redis on the surface. They support the same data structures and many of the same commands. But once you start building across environments, those similarities can break down. (See the differences here.)

ElastiCache and Memorystore don’t support over 150 Redis commands and many of the new data structures found in Redis 8. ElastiCache doesn’t offer native vector search, and neither support hybrid queries, or the full-text search capabilities of the Redis Query Engine. ElastiCache doesn’t support Append Only File (AOF). Memorystore doesn’t support Access Control Lists (ACLs). Neither supports cross-region active-active replication to deliver 99.999% availability. And they’re only available on one cloud. If you want to use those services together, or alongside Redis Open Source, you’ll need to account for differences in behavior, feature availability, and version support.

Even small differences add friction. Valkey is creating commands that use the same Redis syntax but are implemented differently. One environment might support a command that another doesn’t. Tooling that works in staging might fail in production. Devs spend more time chasing inconsistencies and less time shipping code.

Redis avoids this kind of fragmentation. You get a unified codebase, a single roadmap, and full support from the team behind the product. Whether you're running in a managed cloud service or on your own infrastructure, the behavior stays consistent. That consistency keeps your architecture clean and your team focused.

Real-world flexibility, plus tools to support it

Liftoff, a mobile app marketing platform, started with Redis in a flexible, multi-cloud architecture. They standardized on Redis across clouds to keep their architecture consistent. It also made their later consolidation to AWS a breeze. They didn’t have to re-architect or sacrifice features. Read their full story →

If you're planning a similar shift, or simply want to keep your options open, Redis offers tools and guidance to support you:

• Redis Developer Center Docs, migration guides, and resources for Redis Cloud and Redis Software
• RIOT-X A migration toolset for moving from open source Redis, Valkey-based services, or legacy caching layers to Redis Cloud and Redis Software

Redis gives you the flexibility to evolve your infrastructure without rewriting your app.

What’s next

If you're navigating a multi-cloud architecture or planning a move between environments, Redis gives you the flexibility to evolve without starting over. You can standardize on Redis today and stay confident it will support you wherever your architecture goes next.

To see how Redis compares to Valkey in more detail, including feature coverage, cloud availability, and enterprise readiness, visit: redis.io/compare/valkey

You can also explore Redis offerings directly:

• Redis Cloud for managed deployments on AWS and Google Cloud
• Redis Software for full control across cloud, hybrid, on-premises, and regulated environments