I have used Erlang in a few project already. I often use it for restful services. Where I don't use it however is for complex front end web applications where tools like Ruby on Rails are far better. But for the powerbroker behind the scenes I know of no better tool than Erlang.
I also use a few applications written in Erlang. I use CouchDB and RabbitMQ a bit and I have set up a few EJabberd servers. These applications are the most powerful, easiest and flexible tools in their field.
Not wanting to use Erlang because it does not use JVM is in my mind pretty silly. JVM is not some magical tool that is the best in doing everything in the world. In my mind the ability to choose from an arsenal of different tools and not being stuck in a single language or framework is what separates experts from code monkeys.
PS: After reading my comment back in context I noticed it looked like I was calling oxbow_lakes a code monkey. I really wasn't and apologize if he took it like that. I was generalizing about types of programmers and I would never call an individual such a negative name based on one comment by him. He is probably a good programmer even though I encourage him to not make the JVM some sort of a deal breaker.
