What is Redis? — UK Software Development Guide
Direct Answer
Redis is an open-source, in-memory data structure store used as a database, cache, and message broker. Unlike disk-based databases, Redis stores all data in RAM — making it extremely fast (sub-millisecond response times). Redis supports strings, hashes, lists, sets, sorted sets, and more, enabling a wide range of use cases.
Redis in the UK
Redis is used in virtually all UK SaaS and high-traffic web applications. Primary UK use cases: session storage (much faster than database lookups), rate limiting (prevents API abuse — important for FCA operational resilience), caching of product catalogues or search results (reduces database load), and as the backend for queuing systems (Celery/Bull). UK GDPR implications: session data in Redis may contain personal data — retention policies must be configured (Redis TTL), and session invalidation on account deletion must clear Redis entries.
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