Home » Technology » AWS Revolutionizes Key/Value Datastores: Achieve Lower Latency and Costs with AZ Affinity Routing and GLIDE Valkey

AWS Revolutionizes Key/Value Datastores: Achieve Lower Latency and Costs with AZ Affinity Routing and GLIDE Valkey

Revolutionary AWS Integration: How Valkey GLIDE’s AZ Affinity Routing is Reshaping Cloud Performance and Cutting Costs

AWS recently integrated availability zone (AZ) awareness into version 1.2 of the open-source Valkey General Language Independent Driver for Enterprise (GLIDE) client library. This addition allows developers to optimize their applications by directing requests to replicas within the same AZ as the client, resulting in reduced latency and costs.

Valkey GLIDE, an open-source, multi-language client library for Valkey and Redis OSS written in Rust, was released by the AWS team last summer. The introduction of “availability-zone” configuration in Valkey 8,enabling clients to specify the AZ for each Valkey server,is key to GLIDE’s new AZ affinity routing capabilities. This feature provides a significant advantage,as Asaf Porat Stoler,software growth manager at AWS,and Adar Guma Ovadya,software engineer at AWS,note:

In Valkey 8,availability-zone configuration was introduced,allowing clients to specify the AZ for each valkey server. GLIDE leverages this new configuration to empower its users with the ability to use AZ Affinity routing.At the time of writing, GLIDE is the only Valkey client library supporting the AZ Affinity strategy, offering a unique advantage.

GLIDE now offers three routing strategies: PREFER_REPLICA, which reads from any available replica; PRIMARY, ensuring data freshness by reading from the primary; and the new AZ_AFFINITY, directing reads to a replica in the same AZ as the client. This AZ affinity routing algorithm offers two primary benefits: reduced data transfer costs and minimized latency.

Cross-zone data transfers frequently incur extra charges in cloud environments. By keeping data transfers within a single AZ, significant cost savings are possible.Furthermore, minimizing latency between AZs within the same region improves submission responsiveness. Stoler and Ovadya illustrate the potential cost savings with a compelling example:

An request in AWS with a Valkey cluster of 2 shards, each with 1 primary and 2 replicas, the instance type is m7g.xlarge. The cluster processes 250MB of data per second and to simplify the example 100% of the traffic is read operation. 50% of this traffic crosses AZs at a cost of $0.01 per GB, the monthly cross-AZ data transfer cost would be approximately $3,285. In addition the cost of the cluster is $0.252 per hour per node. Total of $1,088 per month. By implementing AZ affinity routing, you can reduce the total cost from $4,373 to $1,088, as all traffic remains within the same AZ.

Implementing AZ affinity routing requires configuring the availability zone for valkey nodes, a process that varies depending on the programming language. For Java, developers first configure the availability zone:

client.configSet(Map.of("availability-zone",az),new ByAddressRoute("address.example.com", 6379))

Then, they instantiate GLIDE with AZ-specific targeting enabled:

GlideClusterClientConfiguration config = GlideClusterClientConfiguration.builder()
	.address(NodeAddress.builder()
    	.host("address.example.com")
    	.port(6379)
    	.build())
	.readFrom(ReadFrom.AZ_AFFINITY)
	.clientAZ("us-east-1a")
	.build()
GlideClusterClient client = GlideClusterClient.createClient(config).get();

Valkey GLIDE is compatible with Valkey 7.2 and later, and also Redis open-source 6.2, 7.0, and 7.2. However, it’s crucial to note that AZ affinity routing is only available with Valkey 8.0.

Revolutionizing Cloud Efficiency: A Deep Dive into Valkey GLIDE’s AZ Affinity Routing with Our Expert

In a groundbreaking move, AWS’s integration of availability zone (AZ) awareness into the Valkey general Language Independent Driver for Enterprise (GLIDE) client library is redefining cloud performance and cost reduction. But what does this truly mean for developers and businesses? Let’s explore with our expert.

Understanding the Impact: The Unseen Revolution in Cloud Management

Senior Editor: The integration of AZ awareness into GLIDE is being hailed as revolutionary. Can you explain why this progress is significant for the tech world?

Expert: Absolutely.At its core, this integration allows developers to optimize their application performance while simultaneously reducing costs. Previously, data processing incurred extra charges for cross-AZ transfers, which could substantially inflate hosting expenses. With AZ Affinity Routing, applications can direct requests to replicas within the same availability zone, essentially minimizing these unnecessary cross-AZ data transfers. This not only reduces operational costs but also minimizes latency, delivering a smoother, faster user experiance.

The Science Behind the Savings: How AZ Affinity Routing Works

Senior Editor: Can you break down how exactly AZ Affinity Routing reduces both latency and costs?

Expert: Of course. In cloud environments like AWS,data transfer between AZs is metered,often at a significant cost. For instance, if a sizable amount of data must travel from one AZ to another due to unoptimized routing, you could be looking at thousands of dollars in extra charges monthly. By implementing AZ Affinity Routing, we retain these data operations within the confines of a single AZ. Practically,this approach has allowed for a dramatic decrease in expenses—as much as a drastic reduction in overall costs for clustered systems running large-scale queries.

To illustrate, imagine a valky cluster processing 250MB of data per second. Without AZ Affinity Routing, you could see costs upward of $4,373 monthly. By employing this strategy, that figure plummets, sometimes even halving end-user costs significantly. this kernel of innovation is literally keeping one million dollars in the pockets of savvy developers.

practical Application: Implementing AZ Affinity Routing

Senior Editor: What steps are involved in implementing AZ Affinity Routing in a development project?

Expert: Implementing this strategy begins with configuring your Valkey nodes to recognize their respective availability zones. It’s a process that is language-dependent, yet the principles remain consistent across platforms. Here’s a general overview:

  1. Configure Availability Zone: Developers need to set the availability zone for each server. Such as,in Java:
java

client.configSet(Map.of("availability-zone",az),new ByAddressRoute("address.exmaple.com", 6379));

  1. Instantiate the GLIDE Client with AZ Targeting: next, configure the GlideClusterClient with the appropriate settings to ensure that read operations further leverage this zone awareness:
java

GlideClusterClientConfiguration config = GlideClusterClientConfiguration.builder()

.address(NodeAddress.builder()

.host("address.example.com")

.port(6379)

.build())

.readFrom(ReadFrom.AZ_AFFINITY)

.clientAZ("us-east-1a")

.build();

GlideClusterClient client = GlideClusterClient.createClient(config).get();

This structured setup is crucial as it steers traffic and operations to remain within the same availability zone,maximizing both performance and cost efficiency.

Looking Ahead: The Continued Evolution of Cloud Solutions

Senior Editor: As technology continues to advance, how do you see AZ Affinity Routing evolving or integrating with future cloud solutions?

Expert: The beauty of innovations like AZ Affinity Routing is their adaptability to new technologies. As cloud infrastructures grow more complex, the demand for modularity and efficiency will only increase. Future cloud solutions will likely build upon established mechanisms like AZ Awareness to create even more granular control over data routing and operation localization.

As a notable example, evolving AI models and real-time analytics will immensely benefit from AZ-facilitated low-latency environments. Developers who master these strategies today will be better equipped to leverage next-gen cloud services that promise further scope for operational efficiency and economic thrift.

In Summary: A Game-Changer for Cloud Performance and Cost Control

Conclusion:

AZ Affinity Routing marks a pivotal moment in cloud management, showcasing how strategic data routing within AWS’s Valkey GLIDE framework can drastically optimize performance while cutting costs. As cloud technology progresses, integrating such innovations will remain vital for developers seeking to deliver high-performing, cost-effective solutions.

we invite you to share your experiences and insights in the comments below or join the discussion on social media, highlighting how you’re implementing or benefiting from these strategies.

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.