Kx Systems
Kx Systems is a data analysis software developer and vendor. Their products are built upon the proprietary time-series database kdb+ and its programming language q. Kdb+ is optimized for ingesting, analyzing and storing massive amounts of structured data in real-time and has set multiple records in STAC Research benchmarks.[7] Kdb+ is used in financial modeling and data analysis by Wall Street investment banks,[8] and energy, telecommunications, government, and other industries.[9]
Type | Private |
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Industry | Software |
Founded | 1993Palo Alto, California | in
Founders |
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Headquarters | Palo Alto, California , United States |
Number of locations | 14 offices[1] (2018) |
Area served | |
Key people | |
Products | |
Parent | First Derivatives plc |
Website |
The company was founded in 1993 by Janet Lustgarten and Arthur Whitney.[10] Whitney is the developer of the k language. In 2014, First Derivatives increased their ownership interest to a 65 percent share of the privately held company as it began expanding its databases to retail, pharmaceuticals, and utilities.[9] In 2018, First Derivatives announced plans to buy out the remaining shares of Kx Systems.[11] Kx Systems is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, and has further offices in New York City, England, Ireland, Germany, Australia, Singapore, Tokyo, and Hong Kong.[1][12]
Overview
In 1993, Whitney and Lustgarten joined together to commercialize the k programming platform Whitney had created after building the A+ language and other trading systems at Morgan Stanley.[8][13] The purpose of the software was to access and explore large data volumes in financial services computer systems.[14] Initially, Kx Systems had an exclusive contract with Swiss global financial services firm UBS to provide them with the K language. In 1998, the contract with UBS expired and the firm launched the kdb+ database. As part of kdb+, Whitney developed a new language named q that operates with k and uses English keywords.[15]
In 1999, the firm reached a marketing agreement with Northern Ireland based firm, First Derivatives.[16] Kx Systems opened an office in Manhattan in 2002,[17] offices in Germany and Japan in 2003,[18] and an office in Hong Kong in 2009.[19] In 2014, First Derivatives purchased a 65 percent share of Kx Systems, which began a trend in offering Kdb+ to other data-driven industries.[9] Kx Systems has also partnered with the equity trading platform, IEX Group Inc., to conduct real-time market surveillance, which can be used to monitor actions such as insider trading.[20]
To demonstrate this expansion of Kdb+ into verticals outside of finance, Kx has entered into a partnership with Aston Martin Red Bull Racing[21] and has become a technology supplier to NASA's Frontier Development Lab.[22] As of 2019 Kdb+ is available as an on-demand solution via the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace. [23]
Fusion Interfaces
As of mid 2018, Kx released a ‘Fusion’ initiative to increase the interface options for kdb+.[24] These include:
- Python
- Java
- R
- Kafka
- Jupyter
- C#
Additional interfaces can be found at: https://code.kx.com/q/interfaces/fusion/
References
- "Kx Systems: Contact Us". Kx Systems. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
- Editor, Gary McDonald Business (2020-05-20). "First Derivatives overcomes 'especially traumatic year' to post record revenues". The Irish News. Retrieved 2020-08-12.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
- "Kc Systems". Craft.
- "Kc Systems". Craft.
- "Kc Systems". Craft.
- Atwood, Alice (December 23, 2015). "Exchange Capacity 'Key Issue'—Kx COO". Futures and Options World. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
- https://stacresearch.com/search?search_api_views_fulltext=kdb%2B
- "A Conversation with Arthur Whitney". 7 (2). Queue Magazine. February 2009: 12–13. Retrieved October 29, 2015. Cite journal requires
|journal=
(help) - Groenfeldt, Tom (December 29, 2014). "Kx Systems Takes Finance Expertise to Other Industries". Forbes. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
- "Company Overview of Kx Systems, Inc". Bloomberg Business. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
- "Kx Systems". CNBC. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
- Williams, Jenny (June 1, 2014). "Janet Lustgarten, CEO at KX Systems, On Shampoo Apps, Databases and Founding Her Own Company". Computer Weekly. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
- Dempsey, Michael (February 8, 2015). "What Data Can Tell You About Customers". Raconteur. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
- Dempster, John. "History of Kdb+/q Database by kx.com". Time Stored. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
- "In Brief: Kx Systems Signs European Marketing Deal". American Banker. March 19, 1999. Archived from the original on April 9, 2016. Retrieved March 6, 2018.
- "Kx Systems Opens New York Office". Finextra. October 18, 2002. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
- Wold, Melanie (February 24, 2003). "Kx Systems Expands to Germany and Japan". Financial News. Archived from the original on April 9, 2016. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
- "Kx Systems Opens Asian Office in Hong Kong, Appoints Burke to Head". Intelligent Trading Technology. February 11, 2009. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
- "IEX Launches Real-Time Market Surveillance". Markets Media. January 2, 2015. Retrieved October 29, 2015.
- https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/first-derivatives-signs-deal-with-red-bull-racing-1.3281577
- https://www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/final-frontier-first-derivatives-selected-for-nasa-project-1.3560108
- https://aws.amazon.com/partners/find/partnerdetails/?n=Kx%20Systems&id=001E000001d9aJAIAY
- https://www.anaconda.com/blog/company-blog/anaconda-and-kx-systems-partner-to-deliver-kdb-database-system-and-related-machine-learning-libraries/