Valkey 9.0, the open-source fork of the popular in-memory data store Redis, is scheduled for release on September 15, 2025. This release marks a significant milestone for the project, which was created in response to Redis's controversial licensing changes. Valkey 9.0 is a BSD-licensed, enterprise-ready release that focuses on operational safety, security, network resilience, and an improved developer experience.
Key features of Valkey 9.0 include a safe shutdown mode and unified auto-failover for more reliable operations, native TLS certificate-based client authentication for enhanced security, and MultiPath TCP support to ensure stable replication across different network environments. The release also includes developer-friendly additions like the DELIFEQ command for distributed locking.
The development of Valkey 9.0 has been a community-driven effort, with contributions from major cloud providers and other organizations that rely on Redis. The project aims to provide a stable, open-source alternative to Redis that is free from the licensing restrictions and unpredictable costs that have become a concern for many users. The upcoming release of Valkey 9.0 is a testament to the power of open-source collaboration and a promising development for the future of in-memory data stores.