We use mp2 + httpd in prefork mode to translate between JSON/SOAP to proprietary CORBA (via opalORB - the 100% painless CORBA interface) on dedicated servers .
We've run 100's of requests a second through a single server. So long as httpd is configured sensibly the performance is excellent. A word too on stability. One installation has been chugging away for about 4 years now without a single defect report. I also use it for internal testing - using virtual hosts to serve a proprietary in-house socket protocol, which is then reconstituted inside perl. The advantage of this is that I can use Apache::Test to drive the tests. So far the need for frameworks of any sort has not arisen. The ones I have played with, Mason,Catalyst,Gantry, Dancer are all very capable. Probably it is due to the limited use I've put them to but I tend to find that Text::Perlate (or even just some quick and dirty regex-based text mutations), and maybe a bit of javascript gets me there quicker than the frameworks. That said - I have an uncomfortable suspicion that sophisticated technology leads to sophisticated solutions, whether the problems at hand deserve such sophistication or not. Just to reinforce Randolf's enthusiasm - mod_perl is fantastic. Combined with httpd's remarkable flexibility and stability I can't see why we don't brainwash our children into using it as soon as they can hit a keyboard.
