Class::DBI and its brothers are what you want. I also think that perl does more magic than java, partly becuase perl is more dynamic (despite java's reflection). I did a little meditation on this topic (perl, Class::DBI and OO for dynamic languages). From my rusty memory of EJBs, EJB does bundle more in the same package, e.g., instance pooling, transaction, etc., which is probably why it is so heavy, and easily abused.