Apache already has a mod-spdy (https://code.google.com/p/mod-spdy/), and varnish is in wait-and-see mode (https://www.varnish-cache.org/lists/pipermail/varnish-misc/2... "SPDY isn't even an official IETF draft yet")

I agree. Getting SPDY into Apache, ngnix, varnish, squid etc. would be all we need to get the benefits of this new protocol.

The front-end SPDY server could then communicate via HTTP via a low-latency connection.