If infrastructure (eg system) configuration is the goal, there's already a much more accessible project with backend support (flexibility to hack up support for ldap, zk, etc):

https://github.com/puppetlabs/hiera

Intro: http://www.devco.net/archives/2011/06/05/hiera_a_pluggable_h...

Note: Does not depend on puppet, so it'll work with chef. A hiera-databag adapter would make sense.