High Performance Python

Chapter 12. Lessons from the Field

Questions You’ll Be Able to Answer After This Chapter

• How do successful start-ups deal with large volumes of data and machine learning?
• What monitoring and deployment technologies keep systems stable?
• What lessons have successful CTOs learned about their technologies and teams?
• How widely can PyPy be deployed?

In this chapter we have collected stories from successful companies where Python is used in high-data-volume and speed-critical situations. The stories are written by key people in each organization who have many years of experience; they share not just their technology choices but also some of their hard-won wisdom.

Adaptive Lab’s Social Media Analytics (SoMA)

Ben Jackson (adaptivelab.com)

Adaptive Lab is a product development and innovation company based in London’s Tech City area, Shoreditch. We apply our lean, user-centric method of product design and delivery collaboratively with a wide range of companies, from start-ups to large corporates.

YouGov is a global market research company whose stated ambition is to supply a live stream of continuous, accurate data and insight into what people are thinking and doing all over the world—and that’s just what we managed to provide for them. Adaptive Lab designed a way to listen passively to real discussions happening in social media and gain insight to users’ feelings on a customizable range of topics. We built a scalable system capable of capturing a large volume of streaming information, processing ...