Salvatore Sanfilippo
Italian programmer who created the Redis database
- Age
- 49 yrs
- Birthday in 122 days
- Works listed
- 2
- Database, Novel
- Honours
- 0
- Awards & distinctions
- Profile views
- 0
- 0 followers
Salvatore Sanfilippo, known online as antirez, is an Italian programmer who created Redis, an in-memory data store released in 2009 that became one of the most popular databases for caching and real-time applications.
Biography
Security research
Sanfilippo grew up in Sicily and became known in the 1990s for security research, inventing the idle scan port-scanning technique and writing the hping network tool.
Redis
In 2009, trying to speed up a real-time web analytics product, he wrote Redis (“Remote Dictionary Server”), which keeps data in memory and supports structures such as lists and sets. It was adopted by Twitter, GitHub, Instagram and countless others.
Stepping back and returning
He was sponsored by VMware and then Redis Labs. In 2020 he stepped back to write fiction and other projects, publishing a science-fiction novel, Wohpe. He returned to Redis in late 2024.
Licensing
Redis changed its licence in 2024, prompting the open-source fork Valkey; in 2025 Redis added an open-source licence option again.
Timeline
-
1977
Born in Campobello di Licata, Sicily, Italy
-
1998
Invents the idle scan
-
2009
Releases Redis
-
2010
VMware sponsors Redis
-
2015
Joins Redis Labs
-
2020
Steps back from Redis
-
2024
Returns to Redis
Notable works
-
2009
Redis Database
-
2022
Wohpe Novel
Did you know?
-
1
He wrote his novel in Italian.
-
2
Redis is often used as a cache in front of slower databases.
-
3
His blog posts on programming are widely read.
Connections
Frequently asked
Who is Salvatore Sanfilippo?
Salvatore Sanfilippo, known online as antirez, is an Italian programmer who created Redis, an in-memory data store released in 2009 that became one of the most popular databases for caching and real-time applications.
How old is Salvatore Sanfilippo?
Salvatore Sanfilippo is 49 years old, born on 7 March 1977 in Campobello di Licata, Sicily, Italy.
Where is Salvatore Sanfilippo from?
Salvatore Sanfilippo was born in Campobello di Licata, Sicily, Italy.
What is Salvatore Sanfilippo known for?
Salvatore Sanfilippo is best known for Creating Redis (2009); hping security tool.
References
- Salvatore Sanfilippo — Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Salvatore Sanfilippo — Goodreads author page. Goodreads. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Official website. invece.org. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Salvatore Sanfilippo (Q106368090) — structured data. Wikidata. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
Includes material from the Wikipedia article “Salvatore Sanfilippo”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. That text is available under the same licence. Learn more
External links
About this profile
- Researched by the TrackFame editorial team; reviewed by Sanjay Sokal under our editorial policy
- First published 4 November 2026
- Last updated
Cite this page
“Salvatore Sanfilippo.” TrackFame, last updated 4 November 2026. https://trackfame.com/person/salvatore-sanfilippo
Discussion 0
Sign in or create an account to join the discussion.
No comments yet — be the first.
More in Technology
Technology
Sachin Bansal
Co-founder of Flipkart and founder of Navi
Born 1981
Technology
Technical Guruji
Technology YouTuber creating content in Hindi
Born 1991
Technology
Satya Nadella
Chairman and CEO of Microsoft
Born 1967
Technology
Nandan Nilekani
Infosys co-founder and architect of Aadhaar
Born 1955
Technology
Ritesh Agarwal
Founder of the hotel chain OYO
Technology
Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Founder of the digital payments company Paytm
Born 1978