Is Redis just a cache?

Question

I have been reading some Redis docs and trying the tutorial at http://try.redis-db.com/. So far, I can\'t see any difference between Redis and caching technologies like Velo

Answer 1

Besides being a cache server, Redis is specifically a data structure server. Being a cache in the form of a data structure server means a lot, because data structures are fundamentals of programs, or applications. Consider you are using SQL databases as storage technology and need to construct a list, a hash map, a ranking set or things like that, it's kind of pain in the neck. Redis can provide you these functionalities directly in a very simple way, thus highly simplify the development.

On the other hand, a data structure server does not have to be in the form of a cache. There are projects compatible with Redis but have persistent storage engines.