diff --git a/core/includes/config.inc b/core/includes/config.inc
index 78d12e8..90060d9 100644
--- a/core/includes/config.inc
+++ b/core/includes/config.inc
@@ -117,110 +117,3 @@ function config($name, $class = 'Drupal\Core\Config\DrupalConfig') {
   return new $class(new DatabaseStorage($name));
 }
 
-/**
- * Decodes configuration data from its native format to an associative array.
- *
- * @param $data
- *   Configuration data.
- *
- * @return
- *   An associative array representation of the data.
- */
-function config_decode($data) {
-  if (empty($data)) {
-    return array();
-  }
-
-  // This is the fastest and easiest way to get from a string of XML to a PHP
-  // array since SimpleXML and json_decode()/encode() are native to PHP. Our
-  // only other choice would be a custom userspace implementation which would
-  // be a lot less performant and more complex.
-  $xml = new SimpleXMLElement($data);
-  $json = json_encode($xml);
-  return json_decode($json, TRUE);
-}
-
-/**
- * Standardizes SimpleXML object output into simple arrays for easier use.
- *
- * @param $xmlObject
- *   A valid XML string.
- *
- * @return
- *   An array representation of A SimpleXML object.
- */
-function config_xml_to_array($data) {
-  $out = array();
-  $xmlObject = simplexml_load_string($data);
-
-  if (is_object($xmlObject)) {
-    $attributes = (array) $xmlObject->attributes();
-    if (isset($attributes['@attributes'])) {
-      $out['#attributes'] = $attributes['@attributes'];
-    }
-  }
-  if (trim((string) $xmlObject)) {
-    return trim((string) $xmlObject);
-  }
-  foreach ($xmlObject as $index => $content) {
-    if (is_object($content)) {
-      $out[$index] = config_xml_to_array($content);
-    }
-  }
-
-  return $out;
-}
-
-/**
- * Encodes an array into the native configuration format.
- *
- * @param $data
- *   An associative array or an object
- *
- * @return
- *   A representation of this array or object in the native configuration
- *   format.
- *
- * @todo The loaded XML can be invalid; throwing plenty of PHP warnings but no
- *   catchable error.
- */
-function config_encode($data) {
-  // Convert the supplied array into a SimpleXMLElement.
-  $xml_object = new SimpleXMLElement("<?xml version=\"1.0\"?><config></config>");
-  config_array_to_xml($data, $xml_object);
-
-  // Pretty print the result.
-  $dom = new DOMDocument('1.0');
-  $dom->preserveWhiteSpace = false;
-  $dom->formatOutput = true;
-  $dom->loadXML($xml_object->asXML());
-
-  return $dom->saveXML();
-}
-
-/**
- * Encodes an array into XML
- *
- * @param $data
- *   An associative array or an object
- *
- * @return
- *   A representation of this array or object in the native configuration
- *   format.
- */
-function config_array_to_xml($array, &$xml_object) {
-  foreach ($array as $key => $value) {
-    if (is_array($value)) {
-      if (!is_numeric($key)){
-        $subnode = $xml_object->addChild("$key");
-        config_array_to_xml($value, $subnode);
-      }
-      else {
-        config_array_to_xml($value, $xml_object);
-      }
-    }
-    else {
-      $xml_object->addChild($key, $value);
-    }
-  }
-}
diff --git a/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Config/DatabaseStorage.php b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Config/DatabaseStorage.php
index 63ae7b4..ba6ecbe 100644
--- a/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Config/DatabaseStorage.php
+++ b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Config/DatabaseStorage.php
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ use Exception;
 class DatabaseStorage extends StorageBase {
 
   /**
-   * Overrides StorageBase::read().
+   * Implements StorageInterface::read().
    */
   public function read() {
     // There are situations, like in the installer, where we may attempt a
@@ -19,16 +19,20 @@ class DatabaseStorage extends StorageBase {
     // catch the exception and just return an empty array so the caller can
     // handle it if need be.
     try {
-      return db_query('SELECT data FROM {config} WHERE name = :name', array(':name' => $this->name))->fetchField();
-    } catch (Exception $e) {
-      return array();
+      $data = db_query('SELECT data FROM {config} WHERE name = :name', array(':name' => $this->name))->fetchField();
+      $data = $this->decode($data);
     }
+    catch (Exception $e) {
+      $data = array();
+    }
+    return $data;
   }
 
   /**
    * Implements StorageInterface::writeToActive().
    */
   public function writeToActive($data) {
+    $data = $this->encode($data);
     return db_merge('config')
       ->key(array('name' => $this->name))
       ->fields(array('data' => $data))
@@ -45,6 +49,20 @@ class DatabaseStorage extends StorageBase {
   }
 
   /**
+   * Implements StorageInterface::encode().
+   */
+  public function encode($data) {
+    return serialize($data);
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Implements StorageInterface::decode().
+   */
+  public function decode($raw) {
+    return unserialize($raw);
+  }
+
+  /**
    * Implements StorageInterface::getNamesWithPrefix().
    */
   static public function getNamesWithPrefix($prefix = '') {
diff --git a/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Config/DrupalConfig.php b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Config/DrupalConfig.php
index c405757..25339e9 100644
--- a/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Config/DrupalConfig.php
+++ b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Config/DrupalConfig.php
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ class DrupalConfig {
    * Reads config data from the active store into our object.
    */
   public function read() {
-    $active = (array) config_decode($this->storage->read());
+    $active = (array) $this->storage->read();
     foreach ($active as $key => $value) {
       // If the setting is empty, return an empty string rather than an array.
       // This is necessary because SimpleXML's default behavior is to return
@@ -201,7 +201,7 @@ class DrupalConfig {
    * Saves the configuration object to disk as XML.
    */
   public function save() {
-    $this->storage->write(config_encode($this->data));
+    $this->storage->write($this->data);
   }
 
   /**
diff --git a/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Config/FileStorage.php b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Config/FileStorage.php
index e65e168..2076afd 100644
--- a/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Config/FileStorage.php
+++ b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Config/FileStorage.php
@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@ class FileStorage {
    *   Exception
    */
   public function write($data) {
+    $data = $this->encode($data);
     if (!file_put_contents($this->getFilePath(), $data)) {
       throw new FileStorageException('Failed to write configuration file: ' . $this->getFilePath());
     }
@@ -81,6 +82,7 @@ class FileStorage {
   public function read() {
     if ($this->exists()) {
       $data = $this->readData();
+      $data = $this->decode($data);
       return $data;
     }
     return FALSE;
@@ -93,4 +95,64 @@ class FileStorage {
     // Needs error handling and etc.
     @drupal_unlink($this->getFilePath());
   }
+
+  /**
+   * Implements StorageInterface::encode().
+   */
+  public function encode($data) {
+    // Convert the supplied array into a SimpleXMLElement.
+    $xml_object = new SimpleXMLElement("<?xml version=\"1.0\"?><config></config>");
+    $this->encodeArrayToXml($data, $xml_object);
+
+    // Pretty print the result.
+    $dom = new DOMDocument('1.0');
+    $dom->preserveWhiteSpace = false;
+    $dom->formatOutput = true;
+    $dom->loadXML($xml_object->asXML());
+
+    return $dom->saveXML();
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Encodes an array into XML
+   *
+   * @param $array
+   *   An associative array to encode.
+   *
+   * @return
+   *   A representation of $array in XML.
+   */
+  protected function encodeArrayToXml($array, &$xml_object) {
+    foreach ($array as $key => $value) {
+      if (is_array($value)) {
+        if (!is_numeric($key)){
+          $subnode = $xml_object->addChild("$key");
+          $this->encodeArrayToXml($value, $subnode);
+        }
+        else {
+          $this->encodeArrayToXml($value, $xml_object);
+        }
+      }
+      else {
+        $xml_object->addChild($key, $value);
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  /**
+   * Implements StorageInterface::decode().
+   */
+  public function decode($raw) {
+    if (empty($raw)) {
+      return array();
+    }
+
+    // This is the fastest and easiest way to get from a string of XML to a PHP
+    // array since SimpleXML and json_decode()/encode() are native to PHP. Our
+    // only other choice would be a custom userspace implementation which would
+    // be a lot less performant and more complex.
+    $xml = new SimpleXMLElement($raw);
+    $json = json_encode($xml);
+    return json_decode($json, TRUE);
+  }
 }
diff --git a/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Config/StorageInterface.php b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Config/StorageInterface.php
index f1e8a3d..6d16334 100644
--- a/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Config/StorageInterface.php
+++ b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/Config/StorageInterface.php
@@ -75,6 +75,16 @@ interface StorageInterface {
   function writeToFile($data);
 
   /**
+   * Encodes configuration data into the storage-specific format.
+   */
+  public function encode($data);
+
+  /**
+   * Decodes configuration data from the storage-specific format.
+   */
+  public function decode($raw);
+
+  /**
    * Gets names starting with this prefix.
    *
    * @param $prefix