Alteryx Inspire 2016 Ned Harding Keynote Recap: A Peek Behind the Alteryx Curtain

[LisaA]

There has been a ton of new and exclusive content presented this week at Inspire, but none has been newer, or more exclusive then the never-before-presented keynote by Ned Harding, our CTO. This year’s attendees received a special behind the scene look at what makes Alteryx Designer and Alteryx Server so special.

Attendees in the room gained a better understanding of the engine that powers the Alteryx Analytics platform. Ned gave a quick glimpse of the coding work that would have to be written in order to perform the same tasks, and at the same speed, but without Alteryx Analytics to help. The screenshot of the numerous cryptic lines of code really put into perspective all of the technical magic taking place behind the UI.

Ned gave a technical but digestible overview of how the Alteryx Designer and Alteryx Server are architecturally designed, and how at the heart of these products lies the Alteryx Engine, the data processing powerhouse that makes Alteryx Analytics unique.

After going over the Alteryx Engine’s architecture, the audience gained an appreciation for the technical magic that happens once ‘run’ is hit in an Alteryx workflow. Ned visually showed, and explained in layman’s terms how the Alteryx Engine sorts, filters, and processes data both in-memory and in-database, and how that gives our users fast and near limitless data processing power.

After the eye-opening look at how Alteryx processes data, Ned described how Alteryx Analytics is quite modular from an engineering perspective, and how this helps support a wide range of code and design flexibility, which is what enables Alteryx to quickly create and release new tools and features.

The behind the scene look didn’t just end there, Ned also gave a sneak peek at what is coming up in development with the Alteryx Designer and Server, which was meet with excitement and enthusiasm as was apparent by users hanging out to ask Ned questions after his session.

Ned’s keynote is the first time that we’ve invited customers to take a look at the magic behind the workflow, and was one of the many reasons that attendees gained so much in coming to Alteryx Inspire 2016. If you didn’t make it to this year’s event, don’t fret! There is still Inspire Europe 2016 taking place in September. Also, start planning now for Inspire 2017, taking place June 4-6 at the Aria in Las Vegas.

In the meantime, follow the Inspire 2016 blog series to catch-up on all the great events that took place.

[mhayashi]

Nice! do you have the frame work slide?

[joshuaburkhow]

Lisa,

I couldn't make it to Ned's presentation. Rumor was that the presentations were being recorded. True? if so where/when could we get our hands on it?

Thanks!
Joshua

[LisaA]

Hi @joshuaburkhow  I'm sorry, but we didn't record this session from Inspire. I'm terribly sorry that you missed it, though.....you might be able to catch it at a future Inspire! We have our Inspire 2017 date and location locked - https://www.alteryx.com/inspire-2017. Make sure to block your calendar and join us. 

[LisaA]

@mhayashi this session was quite special for conference attendees, and it was not recorded and we're not distributing any slides or materials from the session at this time. Should this change, we'll make sure to post it on the community and will make sure to try and get in touch with you! 

[mhayashi]

Thanks Lisa, I attended the Conference and this keynote. It was very informtive, appreciate the consideration.