Webserver

Of course you should use mod_perl ( http://perl.apache.org/). It's much faster (~ * 100) than pure cgi. But needs more RAM. So your httpd with mod_perl will be about 16 MB (~10MB shared).

Preestablish datababase connections

And you can have establish datababase connections on process startup (httpd). This saves also time (see README.webserver).

Preloaded modules - startup.pl

Use the scripts/apache-perl-startup.pl startup script for preloaded/precompiled perl modules on your mod_perl webserver to be faster and smaller (see README.webserver).

Reload perl modules when updated on disk

Per default Apache::StatINC (mod_perl1) or Apache::Reload (mod_perl2) is used in scripts/apache-httpd.include.conf. Disable it and you will get 8 % more speed. But remember to restart the webserver if you change the Kernel/Config.pm or any other modules!

Choosing the Right Strategy

If you have a really large installation (over 1000 new tickets a day and over 40 Agents) is a good idea to read "Choosing the Right Strategy" (http://perl.apache.org/docs/1.0/guide/strategy.html).

mod_gzip

Anyway, if your bandwidth is a little bit small use mod_gzip (http://www.schroepl.net/projekte/mod_gzip/). If you have a html page with 45k, mod_gzip compress it. The page will be about 7k. That's really nice.