The Leader In-Memory Time-Series Database Technology: Kx Technology

In the modern market-driven world, businesses need immediate access to real-time and historical data for a whole range of applications. From research through trading, smart meter data analysis, website analytics, customer behaviors and a plethora of other applications, all need a high-velocity analytics platform. But there’s a problem. Data records already number in the trillions and are escalating exponentially.

This is where Kx Technology comes. Founded in 1993, Kx was established by Arthur Whitney and Janet Lustgarten to take care of a single problem which was to solve the inability of traditional relational database technology to keep up with escalating volumes of data.

Delivering high-performance

Ever since its establishment, the company has a singular goal to provide its customers with the fastest, most efficient, and most flexible tools for processing real-time and historical data. This focus has enabled Kx to become the worldwide leader of in-memory, time-series databases.

“At Kx Labs, we’re passionate about discovering new ideas and transforming them into innovative software products that build on Kx technology,” says the CEO of Kx Technology, Brian Conlon. “We’re seeking leading-edge technologies to solve tomorrow’s business challenges.” Kx Labs works with the global product teams at Kx and the strategic partners to support solutions, training, sales and consulting.

The architecture developed by Kx is elegant with minimal storage requirements. It utilizes the hardware in an ultra-efficient fashion and combines to deliver a lower TCO. The Kx is specifically designed to allow the database to scale out easily as data volumes grow. And most importantly, to function without losing performance.

A Solution for all

It’s a simple and crystal clear mission at Kx. In fact, the company was set up to address one of the most basic problems in high-performance computing. And that is the inability of traditional relational database technology to keep up with the explosive escalation of data volumes. “Ever since, our singular goal has been to provide clients and partners with the most efficient and flexible tools for ultra-high-speed processing of real-time, streaming and historical data,” Brian adds.

The entire Kx technology is built on a uniquely integrated platform that comes with a high-performance historical time-series columnar database called kdb+. The kdb+ is equipped with an in-memory compute engine and also a real-time streaming processor. All of this is unified with an expressive query and programming language called ‘q’.

Moreover, the kdb+ database has been proven to solve complex problems faster than any of its competitors. The database is designed and developed from the start for extreme scale and runs on industry-standard servers. It is built on a unique computer programming paradigm and uses a single architecture to access billions and trillions of structured data records. This result is a super-blazingly fast processing time. The number is significantly faster than those of competitive technologies.

Kx has a wide array of customers and clients. The customers are all market leaders in their fields and work in diverse backgrounds from top investment banks and hedge funds to premier energy companies, pharmaceutical firms, and scientific research institutions. “Our powerful software allows these companies to tackle the most complex and data-intensive applications,” adds Brian.

Kx is currently exploring key emerging areas like:

• Cyber Security
• Operational Intelligence
• Self Service Analytics
• IoT and Embedded Software
• Edge Computing
• Machine Learning and Predictive Analytics
• Data Visualization and Visual Languages

Excellence in Engineering

Here’s a true story of Kx and Porsche. The Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup is the fastest international single marque GT racing Championship, contended by professional teams and drivers in technically identical 460 hp ‘Type 991’ 911 GT3 Cup race cars, according to Porsche.

Inspired by its corporate mission of excellence in engineering, Kx sponsored a Porsche Supercup car and driver in 2017 for the second year in a row. And in the race held in 2017, Kx’s car was the new 2017 Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Car and the driver was Paul Rees.

“Porsche is a brand that we associate with speed, power, elegance, simplicity and great engineering,” said Kx Chief Revenue Officer Pat Brazel at the unveiling of the car at Porsche Centre Mayfair London ahead of the 2017 Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup season. “These are all things that we aspire to, and values that we share in the products that we build.” Kx is already looking forward to the 2018 season.

Meet the Executive

Brian Conlon is the CEO of Kx as well as its parent company First Derivatives. Brian trained with KPMG before joining the risk management team at Morgan Stanley International, London. After working at SunGard he founded First Derivatives in 1996. Brian has built First Derivatives into a leader in global technology services and products, working with some of the world’s largest finance, technology, and energy institutions. First Derivative has been recognized as one of the most successful AIM-listed companies on the London Stock Exchange.

“At Kx Labs, we’re passionate about discovering new ideas and transforming them into innovative software products that build on Kx technology.”

“We’re seeking leading-edge technologies to solve tomorrow's business challenges.”