In layman’s terms, Jitterbit helps applications and systems that wouldn’t normally be able to ‘talk’ to each other do just that, and it also helps automate some of the more tedious processes involved in data management, like transferring data between applications. Users map out which fields in various applications are linked, and then Jitterbit automatically handles the synchronization regardless of which protocol is being used.

The new version adds support for use by multiple users and across multiple servers simultaneously. It also includes a plug-in manager, which allows users to leverage the library of plugins that have been built by the community (examples include plugins that add encryption schemes or can scrape data from webpages). Finally, the company says that the application has significant performance boosts, as well as added support for JDBC-based systems and HTTP Endpoints.

Jitterbit launched its 2.0 release back in August 2008, introducing a drag-and-drop interface and a new business model that charges customers for a “rock-solid” version of the product that includes support (anyone is free to try out the ‘bleeding edge’ version on their own for free, but Jitterbit won’t provide support for it). Since then things have been going quite well for the company: Director of Online Marketing Daniel Oxenburgh says Jitterbit is currently on track to double the new customers it will acquire this year versus last year. Notable clients include NASA and Continental Airlines.

Competitors to Jitterbit include SnapLogic and Talend, which raised $12 million earlier this year.

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.