use Perl

Regarding no database: you can do an awful lot with the filesystem. I have a couple of reasons for wanting to ditch the database:

1. Acceptance: It's another piece of technology for end-users (IT folks) to object to -- "Perl's okay, but we're an MSSQL shop!"
2. Complexity: Typical ORM mismatch foo.

Good thought about BerkeleyDB though. Even though it's gained a lot of complexity you can still use it very simply.

The "freak out" comment was more about it being in Perl than the technology. I suspect that if we pitch it as a black box that does HTTP we'll be okay, but I'm a little wary -- because of inexperience, not because I don't think Perl can do what it's supposed to.

Good words about Catalyst though, thanks.

I've been working pretty much exclusively in Java for the last few years. However, we have a subproject to do some system/application automation work that's written in Perl. It's currently a CLI tool that allows us to install/upgrade our application remotely, restart the service(s) (the app runs on Solaris), and other fun stuff.