Jitterbit: An Open Source Project That Bridges Data Gaps

Jitterbit, a service that helps companies bridge and integrate data from different sources, has released a new 2.0 version of its software along with a new pricing model that it hopes will make it more appealing to businesses and consumers alike.

Jitterbit is an open source project that allows users to efficiently use and modify data from multiple sources that may not typically communicate directly. While the company is partially targeted towards the enterprise market (which often handles such issues when dealing with SaaS applications like Salesforce), it also strives to appeal to smaller scale, consumer operations.

The new version of the software allows users to utilize a drag-and-drop interface to generate functions that will collect data from one input and modify it elsewhere, without having to enter any code. For example, I could use Jitterbit to collect the average price of an iPhone on eBay, and then automatically adjust the price on my own webstore to be 2% less than that figure in order to keep my online storefront competitive.

The new release coincides with a shift in the company’s monetization strategy. In the past, Jitterbit attempted to provide support for both standard releases and “bleeding-edge” nightly builds from the open-source project, which are often prone to bugs because they haven’t been thoroughly tested. From now on the company will no longer support these nightly builds, but will instead offer a for-pay “rock solid” version that includes support (adventurous users can still download the untested version without support for free).

There are a number of similar services in this space, including Talend and SnapLogic.