Azure Managed Redis vs Momento: engine choice and client capacity

Azure has no first-party managed Valkey service as of September 2026. Azure Managed Redis runs Redis Enterprise. For your next cache, prefer Valkey over Redis. Valkey is widely backed across the tech industry and continues to advance the state of the art. Momento Cache brings that engine to dedicated capacity with a gateway built for millions of clients, including Azure availability in preview.

Azure Managed Redis is Microsoft’s recommended replacement for Azure Cache for Redis. Azure Cache for Redis Enterprise and Enterprise Flash retire March 31, 2027. Basic, Standard, and Premium retire September 30, 2028. This comparison focuses on Azure Managed Redis.

At a glance

About Azure Managed Redis

Azure Managed Redis is Microsoft’s managed caching service based on Redis Enterprise. It runs in Azure and offers public network access or private connectivity through Private Link. Customers choose a service tier and capacity configuration for their workload.

Recent updates

September 2, 2026 - Momento introduced Cluster and Flex capacity for Momento Cache. Both provide dedicated, managed Valkey resources. Cluster exposes topology choices, while Flex selects topology within capacity bounds, giving teams a choice in how they configure capacity while Momento operates the cluster.

Run Valkey without taking on cluster maintenance

Microsoft’s Valkey deployment on AKS puts cluster operations in your hands. Your team runs the Valkey software, which sits outside Azure support coverage.

For teams running Valkey on Kubernetes, Momento’s Valkey Operator is a proven enterprise choice. It supports AKS, rolling upgrades, and zone-aware placement. The Operator is self-hosted software, separate from Momento Cache.

With Momento Cache, you get dedicated Valkey capacity while Momento manages cluster health, failover, rolling updates, and security patches.

Give a growing client fleet room to connect

Connection limits can force a capacity decision even when your dataset is modest. Azure’s smaller SKUs cap connections at 75,000 or fewer. More expensive SKUs support up to 200,000.

Momento lets you reach millions of clients through a managed gateway in front of dedicated Valkey. It handles connections, TLS, authentication, and routing. Your application uses familiar standalone-mode clients while Momento manages the underlying topology.

Choose how much capacity control you want

Azure offers a broad range of sizes and memory-to-CPU ratios. Your team monitors demand and chooses when to resize. Its scaling paths stay within in-memory or Flash tiers, and scale-down requires a compatible configuration with enough memory.

Momento gives you two capacity models with the same built-in autoscaling. Cluster puts instance, shard, replica, and zone choices in your hands. Flex selects and adjusts topology within your capacity and replication bounds.

Try Momento Cache

Momento Cache puts dedicated, high-performance Valkey behind a managed gateway that keeps client integration stable as your application grows. Choose Cluster for direct control over instance types, shards, and replicas, or Flex to set capacity and replication bounds while Momento selects the topology. Both include built-in autoscaling and fully managed cluster operations.

Talk to a Momento solution engineer to evaluate the capacity model and configuration that fit your workload.

Frequently asked questions

Is moving from Azure Cache for Redis just an endpoint change?

No. The move to Azure Managed Redis requires new endpoints and credentials. Azure Managed Redis clusters by default, so your migration needs to account for clustering and client behavior in your source tier.

What do the uptime SLAs cover?

Azure’s 99.999% SLA requires at least three eligible instances in three regions, each with high availability and zone redundancy, using active geo-replication. Group downtime requires all group endpoints to be unavailable. Your application handles failover between regions.

Momento offers a 99.99% uptime SLA.

Can I deploy Momento Cache Cluster or Flex in Azure?

Yes, Azure is available in preview. Momento Cache also runs on AWS, with Google Cloud in preview.