Matthew O'Riordan

Co-founder & CEO, Ably

Matt has been working with WebSocket and realtime technologies for over a decade, helping thousands of companies scale their realtime infrastructure. As the co-founder and CEO of Ably, he's passionate about making realtime communication accessible to all developers.

About Matthew

Matthew O’Riordan is the co-founder and CEO of Ably, the enterprise real-time data platform. With experience building real-time infrastructure that reaches over 2 billion devices monthly, he has helped thousands of companies scale their real-time infrastructure.

As a thought leader in the real-time communication space, Matthew is passionate about making real-time technology accessible to all developers. He runs WebSocket.org to provide the definitive resource for WebSocket protocol implementation, going beyond basic API references to offer the operational depth and practical guidance that developers need.

Expertise

• WebSocket Protocol: Deep understanding of the WebSocket protocol, including HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 bootstrapping
• Real-time Systems: Architecture and scaling of real-time communication systems
• Infrastructure: Production deployment patterns for WebSocket applications
• Security: WebSocket security hardening and best practices
• Performance: Optimization strategies for WebSocket at scale
• Pub/Sub: Design patterns for publish-subscribe messaging systems
• Dev Tools and APIs: Hands-on experience shipping real-time and WebSocket APIs to developers

Published Articles on WebSocket.org

Matthew has authored numerous comprehensive guides on WebSocket.org, including:

Core Guides

• WebSocket API Reference - Complete JavaScript WebSocket API documentation
• WebSocket Protocol Deep Dive - Understanding the protocol internals
• Building WebSocket Applications - Step-by-step implementation guide
• WebSockets at Scale - Production patterns and best practices
• Future of WebSockets - HTTP/3, WebTransport, and what’s next

Language Implementation Guides

• WebSockets in JavaScript - Browser and Node.js implementations
• WebSockets in Python - Using websockets, Django Channels, and FastAPI
• WebSockets in Go - Gorilla WebSocket and modern patterns
• WebSockets in Rust - Tokio-tungstenite and async patterns
• WebSockets in Java - Spring WebSocket and enterprise patterns
• WebSockets in C#/.NET - SignalR and ASP.NET Core
• WebSockets in PHP - Ratchet and ReactPHP implementations

Infrastructure Guides

• WebSocket with Nginx - Configuration and optimization
• WebSocket on AWS ALB - Load balancing and scaling
• WebSocket with Cloudflare - CDN proxy and Workers
• WebSocket in Kubernetes - Container orchestration patterns

Speaking & Community

Matthew speaks at conferences about real-time technologies and WebSocket implementation.

Connect with Matthew

• Twitter/X: @mattheworiordan
• LinkedIn: Matthew O’Riordan
• GitHub: @mattheworiordan
• Email: matt@ably.com

About Ably

Ably is the platform that powers synchronized digital experiences in real-time. Whether attending an event in a virtual venue, receiving real-time financial information, or monitoring live car performance data – consumers simply expect realtime digital experiences as standard. Ably provides a suite of APIs to build, extend, and deliver powerful digital experiences in real-time.

Organizations like HubSpot, Doxy.me and Nascar depend on Ably’s platform to offload the growing complexity of business-critical real-time data synchronization at global scale.

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All content on WebSocket.org is authored or reviewed by Matthew O’Riordan to ensure technical accuracy and practical applicability.