Hi
This is what we run at my work. We run the php compiled with servlets and java. So when we connect to Oracle, we exploit the DBConnectionPool class of the servlet and maintain the pool for every request that comes in. For the first request the oracle connection would be slow for us as we connect to databases outside US too, but subsequent call are answered by Java threads, which work with the pooled db connections. I believe the java DBConnectionPool is supposed to be very safe, secure and effective. And thats what still runs for us and runs good.
I hope this would help you.
