I got exposed to kdb+ while interviewing in quant and would kill to use it in a non-financial metrics setting, but the language and ecosystem just can&#x27;t let me get there. kdb+ is so fast and powerful you&#x27;d think it impossible.<p>They&#x27;re not directly comparable, but kdb+ would crush InfluxDB head to head in an apple&#x2F;orange comparison if used for the same thing. I actually can&#x27;t think of any time series-like store that remotely comes close to the feats I have seen kdb+ with Q accomplish. Too bad the productivity and knowledge overhead is <i>so</i> high.<p>Seriously, I&#x27;m working in realtime metrics right now and I spent a week playing with kdb+ as the central store. I can tell there&#x27;s a gold mine there, but I&#x27;m just not swinging a big enough pickaxe. If there was a dumb Python&#x2F;Go&#x2F;etc typical ops hacker frontend to that whole system I would be throwing every dollar I have to my name at it; my kingdom for burying that system under a few layers of abstraction and paying some quant Q hacker a Ferrari or two a year to hide the sausagemaking from everyone else.<p>(Related aside: Like building furniture from stacks of cash? Learn K&#x2F;Q&#x2F;kdb+ and head for NYC.)