Feature Comparison: Valkey & Redis vs. VMWare Tanzu Gemfire
Developers who want to maximize the speed of their enterprise-grade, distributed applications often turn to in-memory data stores or distributed caches to reduce latency and increase throughput. Two of the more prominent players in this space are Redisson (with either Valkey or Redis on the backend) and VMware Tanzu Gemfire.
Valkey and Redis are well-known for extremely fast performance, and Redisson allows Java developers to build their apps around them, with key features like the distributed Reliable Cache. Meanwhile, VMware has positioned Tanzu Gemfire as an enterprise-class, high-availability data grid. Which one is right for you? This comparison covers all the critical features to help you decide.
Collections
One of the advantages of Redisson with Valkey or Redis for Java developers is familiarity. Redissonvides a comprehensive suite of distributed Java objects that mirror the standard Java Collection Framework. Therefore, developers can work with distributed data using the same intuitive APIs they are already familiar with. In comparison, Tanzu Gemfire only offers a Map object:
Valkey or Redis + Redisson | VMware Tanzu Gemfire | |
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Map |
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Multimap |
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JSON Store |
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Set |
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List |
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SortedSet |
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ScoredSortedSet |
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TimeSeries |
Queues
Distributed queues and messaging patterns are the fundamental building blocks upon which developers build modern, service-oriented applications. Redisson leverages the Pub/Sub and List capabilities of Valke and Redis for a powerful set of distributed queue and messaging objects. This includes Reliable Queue, which guarantees message delivery even in the face of client or server failures. Tanzu Gemfire offers no equivalent features.
Valkey or Redis + Redisson | VMware Tanzu Gemfire | |
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Reliable Queue |
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Queue |
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Deque |
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PriorityQueue |
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PriorityDeque |
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TransferQueue |
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RingBuffer |
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Stream |
Objects
Redissonvides an array of distributed objects and specialized data types to help make complex distributed programming patterns accessible through simple Java interfaces. Tanzu Gemfire mainly focuses on managing serialized Java objects. While it supports storing various object types and has eventing capabilities, it can’t match the breadth of purpose-built objects that Redisson offers.
Valkey or Redis + Redisson | VMware Tanzu Gemfire | |
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Object holder |
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JSON holder |
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Publish/Subscribe |
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Reliable Publish/Subscribe |
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Geospatial |
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BitSet |
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BloomFilter |
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BinaryStream |
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HyperLogLog |
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RateLimiter |
Counters
In distributed applications, atomically managing numerical values is a common task. Java developers regularly generate unique identifiers, track events, or maintain shared counters across multiple instances. Redisson features a number of specialized counters that simplify these programming tasks. With Tanzu Gemfire, developers must implement the logic for atomic operations themselves, which can be complex, and they still might not achieve the same level of optimization provided by Redisson.
Valkey or Redis + Redisson | VMware Tanzu Gemfire | |
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Id Generator |
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AtomicLong |
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AtomicDouble |
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LongAdder |
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DoubleAdder |
Locks and Synchronizers
Redisson builds on the strong consistency guarantees provided by Valkey/Redis to deliver a suite of distributed lock and synchronizer objects. These implementations operate across your distributed clusters to ensure reliable coordination between nodes. Tanzu Gemfire provides transaction support, which can handle some concurrency matters. However, implementing functionality similar to Redisson would require developers to write custom coordination logic on top of Gemfire’s transaction or event frameworks.
Valkey or Redis + Redisson | VMware Tanzu Gemfire | |
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Lock |
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Semaphore |
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CountDownLatch |
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FairLock |
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Fenced Lock |
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Spin Lock |
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MultiLock |
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ReadWriteLock |
Advanced Cache Support
Both Redisson with Valkey/Redis and Tanzu Gemfire provide a range of advanced caching features designed to improve performance and simplify data synchronization. However, only Redisson implements the JCache API with near cache functionality. This means developers can leverage the standard JCache API while benefiting from the performance boost of the near (local) cache.
Valkey or Redis + Redisson | VMware Tanzu Gemfire | |
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JCache API |
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JCache API with near cache |
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Near Cache |
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Read-through strategy support |
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Write-through strategy support |
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Write-behind strategy support |
Cache API implementations
Valkey or Redis + Redisson | VMware Tanzu Gemfire | |
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Spring Cache |
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Spring Cache with near cache |
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Hibernate Cache |
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Hibernate Cache with near cache |
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MyBatis Cache |
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MyBatis Cache with near cache |
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Quarkus Cache |
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Quarkus Cache with near cache |
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Micronaut Cache |
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Micronaut Cache with near cache |
API architecture
Valkey or Redis + Redisson | VMware Tanzu Gemfire | |
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Asynchronous interface |
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Reactive stream interface |
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RxJava3 interface |
Distributed services
Valkey or Redis + Redisson | VMware Tanzu Gemfire | |
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ExecutorService |
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MapReduce |
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SchedulerService |
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RemoteService |
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LiveObjectService |
Session Management
Valkey or Redis + Redisson | VMware Tanzu Gemfire | |
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Tomcat Session Manager |
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Spring Session |
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Micronaut Session |
Security
Valkey or Redis + Redisson | VMware Tanzu Gemfire | |
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Authentication |
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SSL support |
Data Serialization
A common trait amongst all high-performance distributed systems is data serialization. This involves converting complex application objects into a byte stream for storage and transmission across the network, and then deserializing them back into objects.
The choice of serialization mechanism directly impacts application performance, network bandwidth, and more. Redisson utilizes the binary data capabilities of Valkey/Redis to offer an array of serialization options and codecs. Tanzu Gemfire has its own serialization mechanism, but doesn’t natively integrate with many of the industry-leading options supported by Redisson.
Valkey or Redis + Redisson | VMware Tanzu Gemfire | |
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JSON codec |
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JDK Serialization |
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Avro codec |
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Apache Fury codec |
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Smile codec |
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CBOR codec |
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MsgPack codec |
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Kryo codec |
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Protobuf codec |
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LZ4 compression codec |
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ZStandard compression codec |
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Snappy compression codec |
Stability and ease of use
Valkey or Redis + Redisson | VMware Tanzu Gemfire | |
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Fully-managed services support (AWS Elasticache, Azure Cache...) |
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Large memory amount handling |
Redisson With Valkey/Redis: The Comprehensive Solution
For developers who require high-performance distributed caching and enterprise-grade data management, Redisson (backed by Valkey/Redis) and VMware Tanzu Gemfire can both provide a speed boost.
But as this feature comparison shows, Redisson offers a broader and more deeply integrated set of distributed objects and caching features specifically tailored for Java developers. From its comprehensive suite of distributed collections to its specialized atomic objects, Redisson is clearly the comprehensive solution. To learn more, visit the Redisson website today.