Options for real-time web notifications and updates using Comet/XMPP vs WebSocket technologies on a Microsoft stack?

Question

I am scoping out the architectural options for a project that will render live updates (like Facebook) of user activities - logins, photos, etc. Two main UI components of t

Answer 1

The performance gain you get with WebSockets over traditional comet solutions is in the multiple orders of magnitude range; I'd definitely go with the WebSockets camp. Here's a traditional comet vendor's comparison of the two technologies, measuring an over 150x factor in favor of WebSockets (700ms vs. 3 ms at 50,000 users).

A few notes on Kaazing's behalf:

Kaazing is fully supported on Microsoft as a server platform. Also, as you note, Kaazing supports a variety of client libraries and technologies, including the Microsoft stack: .NET and Silverlight, used happily by many of our customers.

In addition, Kaazing offers rich business protocols on top of WebSockets, allowing you to "speak" XMPP directly in your client code.

About browser support: Kaazing provides exceptionally good WebSocket emulation, supporting all the browsers out there, including old browsers, all the way back to IE6. You can read more about it in this blog post.

Regarding maturity: the Kaazing WebSocket Gateway has been shipping since 2009, and has a large number of high profile customers in many industries, including financial, logistics, gaming, and retail; very mature platform with top notch support.