>If I were to entertain this, how about this for starters: A single table - say 10 gb in size, full text search - accessed over a wan.

Ok, there's one requirement from you. So far we require the solution must accomplish:

1. Full text search on a single table 10 table over a WAN

I think its doable. You might have the cleaner solution, but your suggestion that our flexibility tests end after one requirement is entertaining!

I'll add one:

2. We must be able to deploy multiple versions of the platform for multiple versions of the application

And since that makes us even, I'll throw out another one, and then you can respond with whatever else you would like to see flexibility include:

3. We must be able to create tables on the fly with minimal rights to the Operating System

Your turn.