--- title: "Moving Calico to a distributed data store using etcd" source: "https://www.tigera.io/blog/moving-calico-to-a-distributed-data-store-using-etcd/" --- [Technical Blog](https://www.tigera.io/category/technical-blog/) # Moving Calico to a distributed data store using etcd By [Ed Harrison](https://www.tigera.io/blog/author/ed-harrison/) on Apr 10, 2015 • 1 min read For the past month or two, the Calico team have been working hard to upgrade Calico to use [etcd](http://github.com/coreos/etcd) as its underlying data store and API transport, rather than the 0MQ API we’ve used up to now.  This move brings the following benefits: - Easier integration for HA / multi-instance orchestrator plug-ins. - The ability to define richer and more flexible security policy. - Closer architectural alignment with our Docker (and other container) integration which already uses etcd as a datastore for some of its configuration. We’ll provide more information on the updated architecture and data model definition in due course, but I wanted to note that today’s release of Calico 0.15 will be the last based on the 0MQ transport; early next week we will be merging the etcd work into our master branch on GitHub, paving the way for our first etcd based release within the next week or two.  Note that live upgrade between the 0MQ and etcd based code is not supported – if this is a concern for you, please get in touch on our [mailing list](https://www.tigera.io/project-calico/community/), or via [GitHub](http://github.com/Metaswitch/calico/issues) and we can walk you through the process to move to the new code.   [Open Source](https://www.tigera.io/tags/open-source/)[Release](https://www.tigera.io/tags/release/)[Project Calico](https://www.tigera.io/tags/project-calico/) ## Related posts [![What’s new in Calico: Spring 2026 Release](https://www.tigera.io/app/uploads/2026/06/Whats-New-in-Calico-NEW-TEMPLATE-2026.png)](https://www.tigera.io/blog/whats-new-in-calico-spring-2026-release/) [Company Blog](https://www.tigera.io/category/company-blog/) #### [What’s new in Calico: Spring 2026 Release](https://www.tigera.io/blog/whats-new-in-calico-spring-2026-release/) By [Veronika Smolik](https://www.tigera.io/blog/author/veronika-smolik/) on Jun 2, 2026 Kubernetes has come a long way since its debut in 2014. It’s gone from running a couple of containerized microservices to orchestrating fleets of production workloads spanning everything from AI agents to full scale VMs... [Read more](https://www.tigera.io/blog/whats-new-in-calico-spring-2026-release/) [![Kubernetes Operational Maturity: Secure and Resilient Cluster Federation with Cluster Mesh](https://www.tigera.io/app/uploads/2026/05/Kubernetes-Operational-Maturity-Secure-and-Resilient-Cluster-Federation-with-Cluster-Mesh.png)](https://www.tigera.io/blog/kubernetes-operational-maturity-secure-and-resilient-cluster-federation-with-cluster-mesh/) #### [Kubernetes Operational Maturity: Secure and Resilient Cluster Federation with Cluster Mesh](https://www.tigera.io/blog/kubernetes-operational-maturity-secure-and-resilient-cluster-federation-with-cluster-mesh/) By [Veronika Smolik](https://www.tigera.io/blog/author/veronika-smolik/) on May 25, 2026 Practically no one runs a single Kubernetes cluster in production these days. Maybe that’s how it started but data sovereignty requirements, acquisitions, AI initiatives and the need for edge servers, among other considerations, have pulled... [Read more](https://www.tigera.io/blog/kubernetes-operational-maturity-secure-and-resilient-cluster-federation-with-cluster-mesh/) [![What’s New in Calico v3.32](https://www.tigera.io/app/uploads/2026/05/Green-Please-use-a-different-background-color-alternately-1.png)](https://www.tigera.io/blog/whats-new-in-calico-v3-32/) #### [What’s New in Calico v3.32](https://www.tigera.io/blog/whats-new-in-calico-v3-32/) By [Reza Ramezanpour](https://www.tigera.io/blog/author/rezar/) on May 13, 2026 We’re excited to announce the release of Calico Open Source v3.32! 🎉 This release corresponds with Kubernetes v1.36 (Codename Haru) and it goes beyond just sharing a cat as the mascot of the release, it... [Read more](https://www.tigera.io/blog/whats-new-in-calico-v3-32/)