Binary-less replication in CQ 5.6: reliability and pros/cons vs the default serialization type

[LinearGradient]

Just noticed the "Binary less" option in serialization options, as well as this article: http://cq-ops.tumblr.com/post/59996536676/how-to-share-the-data-store-between-author-and-publish

How reliable is this replication type? We especially could have many large DAM assets. Is this serialization type reliable for use in production systems?

Also in the aforementioned article it is noted that this option is not working with clustered data stores out of the box and needs a hot fix. Does the hot fix actually exist?

Finally has anybody used this option in production, especially on the Amazon cloud (AWS/EBS)? Are you happy with its reliability or is it buggy?

[Ashish_Saxena]

I have a similar question for the newer versions.

Have you been able to set it up successfully. Any issues reported?

Ashish