Introduction: Why Caching Needs a Revolution
In the era of cloud-native applications, real-time analytics, and AI-driven workloads, traditional caching systems like Redis and Memcached are hitting their limits. Enter Microsoft Garnet—a next-generation open-source cache-store designed to deliver blazing speed, durability, and extensibility at scale.
How It Started: From Research to Reality
Garnet was born out of Microsoft Research, where engineers spent nearly a decade reimagining the caching layer for modern infrastructure. The goal? Build a cache that could handle massive concurrency, tiered storage, and custom logic—without compromising performance.
Where Garnet Is Already Used in Azure
Garnet is not just a research project—it’s already in production use across several Microsoft services:
- Azure Resource Manager: Garnet helps accelerate metadata access and configuration management.
- Azure Resource Graph: Powers fast, scalable queries across Azure resources.
- Windows & Web Experiences Platform: Enhances responsiveness and data delivery for user-facing services.
These deployments validate Garnet’s readiness for enterprise-scale workloads.
Core Features of Garnet
- Thread-scalable architecture: Efficient multi-threading within a single node.
- Cluster-native design: Built-in sharding, replication, and failover.
- Durability: Supports persistent storage via SSDs and cloud (Azure Storage).
- ACID Transactions: Ensures consistency for complex operations.
- Extensibility: Custom modules and APIs for tailored functionality.
- RESP Protocol Support: Compatible with Redis clients.
- Tiered Storage: Operates across RAM, SSD, and cloud seamlessly.
- Low-latency performance: Designed for sub-millisecond response times.
Client Compatibility: Plug-and-Play with Redis Ecosystem
Garnet supports the Redis Serialization Protocol (RESP), making it compatible with most Redis clients:
StackExchange.Redis(C#)redis-py(Python)node-redis(Node.js)Jedis(Java)
This means team can switch to Garnet without rewriting client code.
Architecture Overview
Garnet’s architecture is built around:
- Single-node thread-scalable execution
- Clustered sharded execution
- Log-structured memory and storage
- Custom command registration and module APIs
This modular design allows Garnet to scale horizontally while remaining highly customizable.
Use Cases
- Real-time web applications
- Gaming backends
- AI inference caching
- IoT telemetry buffering
- Cloud-native microservices
What Makes Garnet Different?
Performance Benchmarks
Garnet has demonstrated:
- 2x throughput compared to Redis in multi-threaded scenarios
- Lower tail latency under high concurrency
- Efficient memory usage with log-structured storage
Future Roadmap
Microsoft plans to:
- Deepen Azure integration
- Expand module ecosystem
- Enhance observability and telemetry
- Support more advanced data types and indexing
Garnet is open-source and available on GitHub. we can run it locally, in containers, or integrate it into your cloud stack.
Getting Started
git clone https://github.com/microsoft/garnet
cd garnet
dotnet run
Final Thoughts
Microsoft Garnet isn’t just another cache—it’s a platform for building intelligent, scalable, and durable data services. Whether you’re optimizing latency for a web app or building a distributed AI pipeline, Garnet offers the flexibility and performance to meet your needs.
DEVOPS | CLOUD | TOOLS 