Errplane (YC W13) Snags $8.1M for Open-Source InfluxDB Time Database
techcrunch.com
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We're open source and want to make sure we hit use cases in DevOps, metrics, and sensor data. The financial market data use case is a nice to have for what we're building, but it's certainly not what we're optimizing for.
If we compete in the financial sector with them, it won't be for a while.
It is definitely more finance oriented, though Kx are making moves towards other application areas. Another difference I'd highlight is that Kx concentrate on the core database itself, esp. performance and expressiveness of the query language, and leave things like GUIs and admin add-on tools to partners (like first derivatives and aquaq).
kdb does just fine with metrics and sensor data. Personally, I would argue that it's weaker on string handling though, which can hurt in certain use cases.
I doubt it'll go open source any time soon. However, it being around a long time is something salescritters can spin to wonderful effect re stability, support, etc etc. ;-)
I think there are fine application areas in finance that you should consider -- just consider the many areas where the core problem isn't related to juggling TB of market data ticks coming off the exchanges.
If KX is making moves into sensors are they competing more with Informix? Or maybe Vertica?
Vertica is seeing use for more historical stuff, and where the time series queries are pretty simple. Informix time series is doing ok, and has better support for rich queries, but isn't really playing realtime. MemSQL has the realtime perf (hi guys!) but needs to beef up on expressiveness. SAP HANA could do it, but not seeing major uptake there.
Still seeing lots of ad hoc solutions, and the expected experimentation with the usual hadoop menagerie (spark is helping make that practical).
The sensor stuff gets interesting at scale. Individual sources may not be producing data that quickly, but in aggregate it can be entertaining volume. Esp. when it comes to mobile things, and correlations become interesting to look at.
Deep thoughts need to wait for the coffee to kick in.
I suspect we'll see a lot of reinvention of technology to cope with these problems; perhaps even open source..
Looking forward to seeing how this all plays out. Best of luck!
@Paul, are you still going to release a preview of 0.9 in december or is it delayed to celebrate the news? ;)
In software development there are lies, damn lies, and timeline estimates ;)
The idea is from a testing perspective (I do data acquisition and analysis for test systems), is when a part breaks, or something critical in your test happens.
You want to find the source of failure. Often times analyzing every single data point is pointless, especially after a 10 hour test with 100 points per second per channel. And you only want to see ~2 minutes of data.
How most systems work is you need to open up a measurement file, and either use a stand alone tool to chop this (and pray it doesn't corrupt your measurement file). Or from what I understand Influx simply lets you query time code to time code and return channels via pattern matching within that time span.
Very simple.
Data management is another big issue. A single day's worth of road test can be ~5-10TB per vehicle (2 months of testing + 20 vehicle fleet). Also this total is project to like all things double every year -_-'
Also as far as I understand Influx doesn't support sound or video. Which is really what aerospace and automotive are looking for.
Custom processing against raw byte values (and other custom functions) should come sometime next year.
What's different about InfluxDB?
There will be more as we go along. Our project is a year old and had 2-3 people working on it for most of the time.
Now....any chance of open sourcing the retired errplane codebase?