More than 160,000 applications developers have downloaded XAware and discovered how much it speeds up the development, enables reuse, and eases management of applications that require interaction with external data.  Now the industry press is taking notice too.  Check it out!

10open source companies to watch

 ... it is clear that open source is no longer just a trendy conversation.

The decision is no longer a question of open source, but about what product is best at solving computing problems regardless of how it was built.

Here is a look at 10 companies to watch.

Company name: XAware

Founded: XAware's open source project was launched in November 2007.

Location: Colorado Springs, Colo.

What does the company offer? XAware offers open source data integration software for creating and managing composite data services.

Why is the company worth watching? Data integration is a must have in today's distributed networks, and XAware is throwing out the old proprietary software model it had in favor of an open platform based on the same technology with years of development and testing behind it.

How did the company get its start? Kirstan Vandersluis, who helped develop and patent XAware's product suite, co-developed an XML-based data services application and began full-time work on the product in March 2000.

How did the company get its name? XAware's name is a recognition of XML, the markup language that makes it possible to read, write and transfer data between different sources.

CEO and background: Tim Harvey. Previously, Harvey was senior vice president of sales and marketing at S1. He also was president and COO of SynQuest. Harvey, a budding triathlete, graduated from the University of Florida with a business administration bachelor's degree in finance and served four years as an officer in the United States Marine Corps.

Funding: XAware has secured three rounds of funding totaling $26.4 million. The most recent ($7.4 million) was led by vSpring Capital. Other venture capital firms include GMT Capital, Sequel Ventures, ITU Ventures and BMJP LLC.

Who's using the product: Customers include AXA, ING, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Genworth, Synovus, Northrop Gruman and Hire a Hero.