By Abby Gruen
2018 was a notable year for the KX community, marked by the expansion of the use of kdb+ for machine learning, on the cloud, and in new industries. The KX blog mirrored these developments, providing useful information and insights, and growing its readership 35% year-over-year.
Recently released tools for integrating kdb+ into Python and Python into kdb+ (embedPy and PyQ respectively) played a large role in new machine learning libraries for kdb+ in 2018. The top read blog for two years running, Kdb+ and Python: embedPy and PyQ reflected this. Related articles were also very popular, including A comparison of Python and q for data analysis, originally published by Dr. Ferenc Bodon.
An ongoing series of machine learning blogs that featured embedPy, using JupyterQ notebooks, were popular, including Natural Language Processing in kdb+. High numbers of visitors to pages related to embedPy and PyQ on the KX Developer’s site mirrored this trend.
Another Python-related blog, about KX being available for download on Anaconda, the fastest and easiest Python and R distribution platform in the world, (Kdb+ on Anaconda and Google Cloud) had strong readership. The ability of Anaconda to expand awareness of kdb+ in the Python community was reflected in thousands of downloads of kdb+, JupyterQ and embedPy from Anaconda in 2018.
Interest in the cloud grew in the KX community, with Migrating a kdb+ historical database to the Amazon Cloud garnering strong readership, further evidence that KX customers are actively developing cloud strategies for 2019.
Rounding out the top most-read blogs for 2018 was an article that compared the relative performance of kdb+ against popular technologies on the database market, Kdb+ Transitive Comparisons. These benchmarks showed that the speed of kdb+ was orders of magnitude faster than many well known tools. The exceptional speed and performance of kdb+ was brought home further in one of the last blogs of the year, 2018 benchmark wrap up: Why the recent kdb+ wins matter.
Demonstrating the expansion of kdb+ into new sectors were several space-related blogs in 2018, with the most read (as of December) being The Exploration of Solar Storm Data Using JupyterQ.
There were a number of articles related to KX technology for the Industrial Internet of Things and sensor analytics in 2018, the most popular being Sensors Working Overtime, originally published by Aston Martin Red Bull Racing. This article describes the use case for KX technology in F1 car racing performance optimization.
A new series of blogs that takes a deep dive into important features of KX solutions and products developed a following in 2018. These include: KX for Surveillance blogs, starting with KX Product Insights: Spoofing and Layering; KX for Analyst blogs, which feature topics like KX Product Insights: Visualization for Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA); and KX Dashboards articles, like KX Product Insights: Template of Fortnite Gamer Visualizations using Dashboards.
Not to be missed are this year’s additions to the rich library of technical kdb+ white papers found on the KX Developer’s site which were announced on the KX blog. Longer and more technical than blogs, these white papers are valuable tools for kdb+ programmers, providing tips, tricks and insights into a wide range of topics. In 2018, popular white papers included: Data visualization with kdb+ using ODBC; Machine learning: Using embedPy to apply LASSO regression, and Storing and exploring the Bitcoin blockchain.
Finally, one of the most popular resources for learning kdb+ was published in the spring of 2018 on the KX Youtube channel. It is a series of 15 videos called Q for All: An Intro to kdb+ presented by Jeffry Borror. Tens of thousands of viewers have watched the complete two-hour series, and organizations with kdb+ staff have begun using them as training videos. If you are new to kdb+, they are a great way to get started.
Stay tuned for more great white papers, blogs, and videos in 2019. Check back to kx.com for weekly additions to our library of articles, follow us on social media for updates, and subscribe to the KX Youtube channel.
