XMPP Feels Much Better

Just a few short years ago it looked as though XMPP, the XML-based messaging protocol central to the Jabber IM platform, was fading away.

Irwin Lazar, Vice President & Service Director, Nemertes Research

November 13, 2009

1 Min Read
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I'm probably not alone among analysts who wrote XMPP off for dead a few years ago after both IBM Lotus and Microsoft announced their commitment to SIP/SIMPLE as the IM/presence protocol of choice, but to steal a line from a favorite movie of geeks all over the world, XMPP is not quite dead.

XMPP got a boost back when Google announced it would rely on the protocol for its Gtalk instant messaging service, now news is breaking that Facebook is leveraging XMPP to provide third-party client access to the recently introduced Facebook chat service.

In my conversations with developers I've heard much praise as of late over the extensibility and scalability of XMPP.  Still, it will be interesting to see how developers integrate XMPP-based messaging and presence services with VOIP/video applications based on SIP.   I expect we'll see more platforms such as the Avaya Intelligent Presence Server that are designed to integrate presence via just about any protocol or application into a master presence repository.

About the Author

Irwin Lazar

Vice President & Service Director, Nemertes Research

Irwin Lazar is the Vice President and Service Director at Nemertes Research, where he manages research operations, develops and manages research projects, conducts and analyzes primary research, and advises numerous enterprise and vendor clients. Irwin is responsible for benchmarking the adoption and use of emerging technologies in areas including VOIP, UC, video conferencing, social computing, collaboration, contact center and customer engagement.

A Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and sought-after speaker and author, Irwin is a blogger for No Jitter and frequent author for SearchUnifiedCommunications.com. He is a frequent resource for the business and trade press and is regular speaker at events such as Enterprise Connect and Interop. Irwin's earlier background was in IP network architecture, design and engineering.

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