The second pitfall is Python itself. Python has a quite nice threading library. So it would be ideal to build your application as a threaded server - because threads use much less resources than processes. But this will bite you, because of one special feature of Python: the GIL. The dreaded global interpreter lock. This isn't an issue if your application is 100% Python - the GIL only kicks in when internal functions are used, or when C extensions are used. Too bad that allmost all DBAPI libraries use at least some database client code that makes use of a C extension - you start a SQL command and the threading will be disabled until the call returns. No multiple queries running ...