It’s Time for Change

We’re beginning to see a turning point in asynchronous frameworks, specifically with regard to Node.js. My contention is that a dynamic language paired with a hybrid concurrency model like that used by Vert.x, is a more useful tool than a pure async reactor like node.js.

Developers want a dynamic language with a clean syntax like Python or Ruby. They also want massively concurrent servers to deal with sleepy connections from websockets, comet, and the like.

With the JVM’s rise as a polyglot platform, we’re finally at a point where dynamic languages can use the great threading support the JVM has to offer. Additionally, with the recent debut of Vert.x we’re finally at a point where that software is packaged together is such a way as to be extremely practical.

Vert.x is an asynchronous application server, essentially Node.js+ for the JVM. The chart below shows why I think Vert.x has the right mix of features to make a big impact: