--- title: "Moving Calico to a distributed data store using etcd" source: "https://wordpress-1075849-4005834.cloudwaysapps.com/blog/moving-calico-to-a-distributed-data-store-using-etcd/" --- [Technical Blog](https://wordpress-1075849-4005834.cloudwaysapps.com/category/technical-blog/) # Moving Calico to a distributed data store using etcd By [Ed Harrison](https://wordpress-1075849-4005834.cloudwaysapps.com/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](http://lists.projectcalico.org/listinfo/calico), 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://wordpress-1075849-4005834.cloudwaysapps.com/tags/open-source/)[Release](https://wordpress-1075849-4005834.cloudwaysapps.com/tags/release/)[Project Calico](https://wordpress-1075849-4005834.cloudwaysapps.com/tags/project-calico/) Add Tigera as a preferred source on Google to see more of our content in your search results. [![Add as a preferred source on Google](https://wordpress-1075849-4005834.cloudwaysapps.com/app/themes/tigera2021/dist/img/google-preferred-source-light.png)](https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=tigera.io) ## Related posts [![What’s New in Calico: Winter 2026 Release](https://wordpress-1075849-4005834.cloudwaysapps.com/app/uploads/2026/03/What-is-new-in-Calico-winter-2026.png)](https://wordpress-1075849-4005834.cloudwaysapps.com/blog/whats-new-in-calico-winter-2026-release/) [Company Blog](https://wordpress-1075849-4005834.cloudwaysapps.com/category/company-blog/) #### [What’s New in Calico: Winter 2026 Release](https://wordpress-1075849-4005834.cloudwaysapps.com/blog/whats-new-in-calico-winter-2026-release/) By [Veronika Smolik](https://wordpress-1075849-4005834.cloudwaysapps.com/blog/author/veronika-smolik/) on Mar 4, 2026 AI Powered Intelligence, Unified Traffic Observability and Scalable Infrastructure Management As anyone managing one or more Kubernetes clusters knows by now, scaling can introduce an exponentially growing number of problems. The sheer volume of metrics,... [Read more](https://wordpress-1075849-4005834.cloudwaysapps.com/blog/whats-new-in-calico-winter-2026-release/) [![Join Calico at KubeCon Europe 2026: AI Agents, Silent Discos, and Dutch Delights!](https://wordpress-1075849-4005834.cloudwaysapps.com/app/uploads/2026/02/Blog-Kubecon-Euro-2026-.png)](https://wordpress-1075849-4005834.cloudwaysapps.com/blog/calico-at-kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe2026/) #### [Join Calico at KubeCon Europe 2026: AI Agents, Silent Discos, and Dutch Delights!](https://wordpress-1075849-4005834.cloudwaysapps.com/blog/calico-at-kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe2026/) By [Tigera Team](https://wordpress-1075849-4005834.cloudwaysapps.com/blog/author/marketingtigera-io/) on Feb 25, 2026 The cloud-native community is heading to the historic canals and vibrant tech scene of Amsterdam for KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2026! From March 23–26, Amsterdam will be buzzing with the latest in Kubernetes, platform engineering,... [Read more](https://wordpress-1075849-4005834.cloudwaysapps.com/blog/calico-at-kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe2026/) [![Project Calico 3.30+ Hackathon: Show Us What You Can Build!](https://wordpress-1075849-4005834.cloudwaysapps.com/app/uploads/2026/02/Blog-Hackathon-.png)](https://wordpress-1075849-4005834.cloudwaysapps.com/blog/project-calico-3-30-hackathon-show-us-what-you-can-build/) #### [Project Calico 3.30+ Hackathon: Show Us What You Can Build!](https://wordpress-1075849-4005834.cloudwaysapps.com/blog/project-calico-3-30-hackathon-show-us-what-you-can-build/) By [Tigera Team](https://wordpress-1075849-4005834.cloudwaysapps.com/blog/author/marketingtigera-io/) on Feb 17, 2026 Build the Future of Cloud-Native Networking! 🚀 The Calico community moves fast. With the releases of Calico 3.30 and 3.31, brings improvements in scalability, network security, and visibility. Now, we want to see what YOU... [Read more](https://wordpress-1075849-4005834.cloudwaysapps.com/blog/project-calico-3-30-hackathon-show-us-what-you-can-build/)