are there any plans to move to a database based storage setup for all the repository information that is stored rather than the collections of text files that it uses now?
I ask because it would probably help a lot with speed and would make the information in the files much more valuable.
Yes, there is. For Deadline 5.0, we are planning to support the option to use a DB backend instead of the file-based repository. We’re still in the early development stages, but we will definitely be looking for beta testers when the time comes.
Cheers,
Agreed !
Definitely a nice improvement 
Specially to address the production side,
Let’s rock baby