I suspect the real problem was social or political. To do anything that involved the database, the developers had to request the DBA's to write the SP's. This k

I suspect the real problem was social or political. To do anything that involved the database, the developers had to request the DBA's to write the SP's. This kind of bureaucracy invariably leads to developers advocating NoSql/schemaless databases, storing data structures as XML in a blob field or whatever else they can come up with to route around the obstacle to development. They chose a new architecture and platform which made the broken process impossible for technical reasons, but I wonder if they would have gotten the same benefit cheaper if they just had fixed the process in the first place? But I guess it is easier politically to shift platform than changing a process which reflects turfs and hierarchies in the organization.