Help justify Perl/DBI/CGI solution for large Informix application

I need help justifying the use Perl, DBI, DBD::Informix, and CGI to implement a large Informix application with a web interface. The application is for a very large corporation, and will eventually be accessed from around a thousand locations. Of most help would be success stories from people who have used Perl and CGI (and preferably DBI, and DBD::Informix would be awesome) to create large, heavily used applications. If demand warrants it, I'll post a collection of responses here (of course I'll keep a response private if you request it). Background: I thought the client had fully accepted Perl for this application, but now apparently they are wondering why we aren't using Informix's Web Datablade or some other commercial solution. Like most large corporations I've seen, they are highly suspicious about free software, and would much rather use some relatively untested proprietary solution that some vendor claims to support and claims is scalable, fast, and easy to develop with all at the same time. I've had plenty of experience using proprietary solutions (primarily Netscape's server side JavaScript, formerly known as LiveWire), which have proven to be very buggy, have scalability problems, unflexible (most applications have required additional C++ and/or Perl code as a workaround), and a pain (not to mention no fun!) to develop with. Anyway, thanks in advance for any helpful responses. -- Mike Linksvayer http://www.au.com/ml/