[mod_python] mod_python in a shared environment

Hello,

I'm researching mod_python as a possible development solution for work 
(web design). As I am still learning python and mod_python, I am having 
trouble sizing up how this approach will work in our development 
environment.

Our main server houses a number of clients and all of their projects. 
After reading about the issues of restarting apache and how 
mod_python/apache use system resources, I am starting to doubt if 
mod_python will be a good fit for an environment of this sort. I was 
wondering if people have a similar situation where there are multiple 
applications (20+) running on a single server? Do you use individual 
python interpreters for each? Do you use the same handler for all of 
them? How does this effect server performance (memory and CPU)?

As a semi-related question, is the import caching that is occurring 
caching in memory or in files?

Hope this makes sense! If not, just let me know. If there are resources 
on the web that relate to these issues, just point me in that 
direction. Thanks in advance for any input.

Rob B