I developed some test APIs and played with WebSocckets in play. One thing I didn't like, is like a WAR, it wants to be first level piece of software. However, I think this is an attitude I carry from embedding web services into projects years ago.. And I need to give in and develop things as web apps.

Scope is a service.. User interface for reporting and graphing, and an API for punting messages around (not instant messages or anything like that). And a database. And servers in the backend will need to talk to other peer servers in another data center.

Thanks for your input.