KX closes down commercial 32 bit kdb, open alternatives?
November 5th, 2015 by John Dempster
Previously on our blog we had a lively debate about a possibly Open Sourced kdb+ , unfortunately kx now seems to be moving the opposite direction. In a recent announcement they are now restricting “32-bit kdb+ for non-commercial use only”. The timing is particularly unfortunate as:
- More column oriented databases are becoming available.
- One of those databases: Greenplum just announced that it is going open source
Alternative (far less enterprise proven) solutions are available:
- MAN AHL have released Arctic an open source Market Data platform based on python and MongoDB
- Kerf Database – A DB aimed at the same market as kdb has now partnered with Briarcliff-Hall and is making greater sales inroads
This renewed interest in kdb alternatives hasn’t so far delivered a kdb+ killer but I fear in time it will.
Why Is Kerf considered a potential Kdb killer? It’s not open source, slow as hell compared to kdb.
Wondering if anyone has an update on the open-sourced column-oriented solutions out there. 2+ years after this post, Kx still has a pretty tight grip on the market and is leveraging their way into new industry verticals. They remain prohibitively expensive for people who want to leverage 64-bit capabilities. What are the major hurdles? Does kdb+ have that much of a tech advantage over other solutions?
Clarification: 2+ years after this post: http://www.timestored.com/b/open-source-kdb/