> Would it make sense to modify my application so that worker perl scripts are invoked via do() instead of system calls?

no, the most common bottlenecks are

do FILE can't solve this, only pre-compiling all scripts and keeping them in memory, the way modperl or FCGI do.

Although first step should be a thorough analysis where the performance is lost.°

Worst-case would be that you'll need to expand to a multi-server farm.

Cheers Rolf
(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :)
Wikisyntax for the Monastery

°) sometimes a RAM disk is the easiest solution.

update

I missed the info about the pre-froking. see Re^4: Use of do() to run lots of perl scripts for more

In reply to Re: Use of do() to run lots of perl scripts by LanX
in thread Use of do() to run lots of perl scripts by chrestomanci

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