Making the Fast, Faster! Methodically Improving Redis Performance

Redis is developed with a great emphasis on performance, aiming for stability and speed in every release. To monitor and analyze Redis' performance, the team runs cross-company standards for performance and observability requirements, utilizing open-source tools like memtier_benchmark and Linux perf_events. They identify potential performance regressions and improvements by running SPEC benchmarks in a "zero-touch" fully automated mode, using instruments like Brendan Greg's FlameGraph repo. Through analysis, they noticed an optimization opportunity in the Streams' ingest benchmark, which led to a 20% improvement in CPU cycles, achieved through avoiding duplicate work and non-optimal memory management within the same code block.