Which server framework (or even platform) do I need for a small dev team?

Question

I want to develop an server/client software of which the clients will be in different Os's.

(Think Mobile phones, tablets, desktop pc's, I even consider this service to connect with asterisk and work with a phone call center).

I'm really searching amongst all the available server frameworks and cannot decide what is the best for my case or whether I even NEED for my specific problem.

Things to consider:

• I need it to be scalable: Initially that server will be accessed through a website but later it will expand and allow people to access it through mobile apps, desktop applications, phone call/sms service, etc..
• Low cost hosting and open source
• Thousands of users to be using that service in the future. (So it must be able to handle this)
• Small dev team (1-3 ppl)
• I've done past projects in C/C++, actionscript, a bit java and a bit php.
• I don't know much about server programming yet (but I'm ok with learning).
• So:
  • it must have an active community and not have died yet.
  • Be as easy as possible to learn.
  • it must already solve the problems of security, packet asynchronism, concatenation for me etc.

Is there such a thing, should I even bother to mess with a framework? What options do I have considering the tools available? What does the industry use? A list of possible options would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

A common technology stack which is open source, scales well and has a very active community is:

• Java
• Tomcat Servlet Container
• Spring Framework (with Spring Security)
• Either Spring Web-services or Apache CXF for web service (mobile connections for example)
• JPA (Hibernate) ORM on top of MySQL

There are numerous other projects that sit around these technologies that fulfill various requirements. I would certainly recommend this as a starting point to your investigation.