Interestingly, this is almost identical to our language decisions. Our engine is C++, the webservices are a wrapper in Java and the stuff on the fringes is a mix of scripting languages. Instead of OCaml, I've been eyeing Scala as the thing I might use to rip out the Java.

Before doing our webservices in Java, I'd never done much of it and assumed it to be a closer cousin to C++. Using it at length, at a time when I find myself frustrated with some of the lack of abstractions in C++ (notably missing lambda), it's whetted my appetite to drop in a slicker language at the medium level of our stack.