Best Time Series Databases for Apache Kafka

InfluxDB is a purpose-built data platform designed to handle all time series data, from users, sensors, applications and infrastructure — seamlessly collecting, storing, visualizing, and turning insight into action. With a library of more than 250 open source Telegraf plugins, importing and monitoring data from any system is easy. InfluxDB empowers developers to build transformative IoT, monitoring and analytics services and applications. InfluxDB’s flexible architecture fits any implementation — whether in the cloud, at the edge or on-premises — and its versatility, accessibility and supporting tools (client libraries, APIs, etc.) make it easy for developers at any level to quickly build applications and services with time series data. Optimized for developer efficiency and productivity, the InfluxDB platform gives builders time to focus on the features and functionalities that give their internal projects value and their applications a competitive edge. To get started, InfluxData offers free training through InfluxDB University.

Telegraf is an open-source server agent that helps you collect metrics from your sensors, stacks, and systems. Telegraf is a plugin-driven agent that collects and sends metrics and events from systems, databases, and IoT sensors. Telegraf is written in Go. It compiles to a single binary and has no external dependencies. It also requires very little memory. Telegraf can gather metrics from a wide variety of inputs and then write them into a wide range of outputs. It can be easily extended by being plugin-driven for both the collection and output data. It is written in Go and can be run on any system without external dependencies. It is easy to collect metrics from your endpoints with the 300+ plugins that have been created by data experts in the community.

Instaclustr, the Open Source-as a Service company, delivers reliability at scale. We provide database, search, messaging, and analytics in an automated, trusted, and proven managed environment. We help companies focus their internal development and operational resources on creating cutting-edge customer-facing applications. Instaclustr is a cloud provider that works with AWS, Heroku Azure, IBM Cloud Platform, Azure, IBM Cloud and Google Cloud Platform. The company is certified by SOC 2 and offers 24/7 customer support.

Enhance your metrics and alerting capabilities using a top-tier open-source monitoring tool. Prometheus inherently organizes all data as time series, which consist of sequences of timestamped values associated with the same metric and a specific set of labeled dimensions. In addition to the stored time series, Prometheus has the capability to create temporary derived time series based on query outcomes. The tool features a powerful query language known as PromQL (Prometheus Query Language), allowing users to select and aggregate time series data in real time. The output from an expression can be displayed as a graph, viewed in tabular format through Prometheus’s expression browser, or accessed by external systems through the HTTP API. Configuration of Prometheus is achieved through a combination of command-line flags and a configuration file, where the flags are used to set immutable system parameters like storage locations and retention limits for both disk and memory. This dual method of configuration ensures a flexible and tailored monitoring setup that can adapt to various user needs. For those interested in exploring this robust tool, further details can be found at: https://sourceforge.net/projects/prometheus.mirror/

Apache Druid is a distributed data storage solution that is open source. Its fundamental architecture merges concepts from data warehouses, time series databases, and search technologies to deliver a high-performance analytics database capable of handling a diverse array of applications. By integrating the essential features from these three types of systems, Druid optimizes its ingestion process, storage method, querying capabilities, and overall structure. Each column is stored and compressed separately, allowing the system to access only the relevant columns for a specific query, which enhances speed for scans, rankings, and groupings. Additionally, Druid constructs inverted indexes for string data to facilitate rapid searching and filtering. It also includes pre-built connectors for various platforms such as Apache Kafka, HDFS, and AWS S3, as well as stream processors and others. The system adeptly partitions data over time, making queries based on time significantly quicker than those in conventional databases. Users can easily scale resources by simply adding or removing servers, and Druid will manage the rebalancing automatically. Furthermore, its fault-tolerant design ensures resilience by effectively navigating around any server malfunctions that may occur. This combination of features makes Druid a robust choice for organizations seeking efficient and reliable real-time data analytics solutions.

The enterprise database for time series, documents, and vectors. Store any type data and combine the simplicity and scalability NoSQL with SQL. CrateDB is a distributed database that runs queries in milliseconds regardless of the complexity, volume, and velocity.

Warp 10 is a modular open source platform that collects, stores, and allows you to analyze time series and sensor data. Shaped for the IoT with a flexible data model, Warp 10 provides a unique and powerful framework to simplify your processes from data collection to analysis and visualization, with the support of geolocated data in its core model (called Geo Time Series). Warp 10 offers both a time series database and a powerful analysis environment, which can be used together or independently. It will allow you to make: statistics, extraction of characteristics for training models, filtering and cleaning of data, detection of patterns and anomalies, synchronization or even forecasts. The Platform is GDPR compliant and secure by design using cryptographic tokens to manage authentication and authorization. The Analytics Engine can be implemented within a large number of existing tools and ecosystems such as Spark, Kafka Streams, Hadoop, Jupyter, Zeppelin and many more. From small devices to distributed clusters, Warp 10 fits your needs at any scale, and can be used in many verticals: industry, transportation, health, monitoring, finance, energy, etc.

Heroic is an open-source monitoring solution initially developed at Spotify to tackle challenges related to the large-scale collection and near real-time analysis of metrics. It comprises a limited number of specialized components that each serve distinct purposes. The system offers indefinite data retention, contingent upon adequate hardware investment, alongside federation capabilities that enable multiple Heroic clusters to connect and present a unified interface. A key component, Consumers, is tasked with the consumption of metrics, illustrating the system's design for efficiency. During the development of Heroic, it became evident that managing hundreds of millions of time series without sufficient context poses significant challenges. Additionally, the federation support facilitates the handling of requests across various independent Heroic clusters, allowing them to serve clients via a single global interface. This feature not only streamlines operations but also minimizes geographical traffic, as it allows individual clusters to function independently within their designated zones. Such capabilities ensure that Heroic remains a robust choice for organizations needing effective monitoring solutions.

Circonus IRONdb simplifies the management and storage of limitless telemetry data, effortlessly processing billions of metric streams. It empowers users to recognize both opportunities and challenges in real time, offering unmatched forensic, predictive, and automated analytics capabilities. With the help of machine learning, it automatically establishes a "new normal" as your operations and data evolve. Additionally, Circonus IRONdb seamlessly integrates with Grafana, which natively supports our analytics query language, and is also compatible with other visualization tools like Graphite-web. To ensure data security, Circonus IRONdb maintains multiple copies across a cluster of IRONdb nodes. While system administrators usually oversee clustering, they often dedicate considerable time to its upkeep and functionality. However, with Circonus IRONdb, operators can easily configure their clusters to run autonomously, allowing them to focus on more strategic tasks rather than the tedious management of their time series data storage. This streamlined approach not only enhances efficiency but also maximizes resource utilization.

QuestDB is an advanced relational database that focuses on column-oriented storage optimized for time series and event-driven data. It incorporates SQL with additional features tailored for time-based analytics to facilitate real-time data processing. This documentation encompasses essential aspects of QuestDB, including initial setup instructions, comprehensive usage manuals, and reference materials for syntax, APIs, and configuration settings. Furthermore, it elaborates on the underlying architecture of QuestDB, outlining its methods for storing and querying data, while also highlighting unique functionalities and advantages offered by the platform. A key feature is the designated timestamp, which empowers time-focused queries and efficient data partitioning. Additionally, the symbol type enhances the efficiency of managing and retrieving frequently used strings. The storage model explains how QuestDB organizes records and partitions within its tables, and the use of indexes can significantly accelerate read access for specific columns. Moreover, partitions provide substantial performance improvements for both calculations and queries. With its SQL extensions, users can achieve high-performance time series analysis using a streamlined syntax that simplifies complex operations. Overall, QuestDB stands out as a powerful tool for handling time-oriented data effectively.