Automation Using Databases.

Hello,

I'm going to give you all an overview of my system which is as follows:

A record gets inserted in a table, trigger is fired (after insert) and this
tirggers calls a function written in perl.
This function is a client socket implementation and opens a socket
connection between the database server and the Unix tools server.

Unix tools server runs tools like traceroute etc, fetches the result, opens
an ODBC connection with the same database server and stores tools result in
a table.
So, one can conclude that in my case database is not only a data storing
engine but an automation engine as well that automates the start of unix
tools.

I am wondering if someone else has done this kind of stuff or related to it.
Also, if someone has accomplished the same thing without using triggers.
In short, I'm looking for any related work. Anything directly or indirectly.

I need some pointers and any kind of help would be highly appreciated.
I'm trying to compare my work with what people have already done.

Also, It would be great if someone could give me some pointers for any
papers published in this regard. I'm basically looking for some technical
papers in this field of databases and then compare my work with them.

I tried finding something on internet. No success so far.

Thanks alot in advance
Jas