Every once in a while someone asks me about software companies to work for in the Seattle area that aren't Microsoft, Amazon or Google. This is the third in a series of weekly posts about startups in the Seattle area that I often mention to people when they ask me this question.

AgileDelta builds XML platforms for mobile devices that are optimized for low power, low bandwidth devices. They have two main products; Efficient XML and Mobile Information Client. I'm more familiar with the Efficient XML since it has been selected as the basis for the W3C's binary XML format and has been a lynch pin for a lot of the debate around binary XML.  The Efficient XML product is basically a codec which allows you to create and consume XML in their [soon to be formerly] proprietary binary format that makes it more efficient for use in mobile device scenarios. A quick look at their current customer lists indicates that their customer base is mostly military and/or defence contractors. I hadn't realized how popular XML was in military circles.  

AgileDelta was founded by John Schneider and Rich Rollman who are formerly of Crossgain, a company founded by Adam Bosworth which was acquired by BEA. Before that Rich Rollman was at Microsoft and he was one of the key folks behind MSXML and SQLXML. Another familiar XML geek who works there is Derek Denny-Brown who spent over half a decade working as a key developer on the XML parsers at Microsoft.

Press: AgileDelta in PR Newswire

Location: Bellevue, WA

Jobs: careers@agiledelta.com, current open positions are for a Software Engineer, Sales Professional, Technical Writer and Quality Assurance Engineer.


 

Saturday, 10 March 2007 19:26:03 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
The military heavy customer list might be a result of Mr. Schneider's past job at a defense contractor. On the other hand, maybe XML is popular in military circles.
Zoltan Zarden
Sunday, 11 March 2007 05:24:29 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Hi Dare! Thanks for the shoutout! Much appreciated. I'm always hearing good things about your work up the hill in Redmond!

The customer list on our web-site does look a little unusual for a tech-startup. We funded some of our research and developments by winning government grants and the government had access to our products before the general public. Efficient XML caught on very quickly and before we knew it we had a whole bunch of defense customers, including the largest defense contractor in the U.S. ($40B annually) and the largest defense contractor in Europe ($22B annually). I've always said its a good idea to fund the company with customers that want your products rather than investor that want their money back! :-)

Indeed, the military makes very heavy use of XML covering many of the commercial use cases we all know and love -- with perhaps more emphasis on speed, reliability and security -- plus a few more "interesting" ones. There are a ton of SOAP & REST web services, AJAX applications, ESBs, Jabber clients, RSS feeds, web sites, etc. They also operate several global wireless networks connecting a variety of mobile devices, similar to commercial cell-phone carriers. Tapping into the commercial XML marketplace drastically reduces costs, increases interoperability and accelerates their tempo of evolution. We were careful to make Efficient XML as efficient as their best hand-optimized binary formats, so they can now use XML practically anywhere, from the high-speed message routers that feed real-time displays to airborne web services. They've been using the software for over two years now and have put it on aircraft, vehicles, satellite systems, high-speed routers, app servers, etc. Its been very cool to see!

Thanks again! Stop by and see us sometime!
Thursday, 15 March 2007 23:57:17 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
You need to remove "This is the first in a series of weekly posts ..." from the header.
Friday, 16 March 2007 00:07:04 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
DevDuck,
Thanks, I've fixed this.
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