Does AppFabric allow me to pre-start my WF or WCF services to decrease latency of the initial call?
Yes, AppFabric hosting provides the Auto-start activation feature. The auto-start feature creates instances of a WF or WCF service before the first request is received to decrease initial response time. WAS will activate the service application without the need to write complex listener code. To initialize your service create a custom ServiceHostFactory for more information see WCF and AppFabric Auto-Start.