I think we are into semantics here, but I would posit if your web server is talking directly to a db other than a key-value store for tokens or what have you, y

I think we are into semantics here, but I would posit if your web server is talking directly to a db other than a key-value store for tokens or what have you, your system is architected poorly. Your web server should be talking to a service written in Java or C# or something that handles the db stuff. edit: to address your point though, yeah, I think 99% of web sites don't need to be talking to a db. That's different from web applications, of course, but most web sites aren't, and shouldn't be, web applications.