Storing a file in a database as opposed to the file system? Storing a file in a database as opposed to the file system? sql-server sql-server

Storing a file in a database as opposed to the file system?


Have a look at this answer:

Storing Images in DB - Yea or Nay?

Essentially, the space and performance hit can be quite big, depending on the number of users. Also, keep in mind that Web servers are cheap and you can easily add more to balance the load, whereas the database is the most expensive and hardest to scale part of a web architecture usually.

There are some opposite examples (e.g., Microsoft Sharepoint), but usually, storing files in the database is not a good idea.

Unless possibly you write desktop apps and/or know roughly how many users you will ever have, but on something as random and unexpectable like a public web site, you may pay a high price for storing files in the database.


If you can move to SQL Server 2008, you can take advantage of the FILESTREAM support which gives you the best of both - the files are stored in the filesystem, but the database integration is much better than just storing a filepath in a varchar field. Your query can return a standard .NET file stream, which makes the integration a lot simpler.

Getting Started with FILESTREAM Storage


I'd say, it depends on your situation. For example, I work in local government, and we have lots of images like mugshots, etc. We don't have a high number of users, but we need to have good security and auditing around the data. The database is a better solution for us since it makes this easier and we aren't going to run into scaling problems.