Well, the main problem is that the user data we store is multi-valued. So each attribute can have multiple values in the same 'record'. As you can imagine, Rail

Well, the main problem is that the user data we store is multi-valued. So each attribute can have multiple values in the same 'record'. As you can imagine, Rails doesn't help much in this situation, as it assumes that each column in the databas table has just one value. http://www.oneis.co.uk/technology/object-store http://www.oneis.co.uk/technology/object-store Oh, and each application on a multi-tenant app server can have a completely different schema. Again, there's not much that Rails can do to help. Rails was good to get going, and it helped for the relational stuff in the app. But unsurprisingly, if you try and use it for something it's not designed to do, it's not going to work terribly well. This principle applies to everything.