The benefits may very well outweigh the drawbacks!
Recently I read an article that talked of storing images in databases versus on the file system. In an article I wrote, I expressed an interest in seeing more data regarding the performance differences between the two methods. Well, the author of the original article has done some more testing, and written about it.
The data reported suggests that for certain workloads, the difference between storing images in a relational database or as files on the file system is quite minimal. For many situations, the ability to store metadata with images used on a web site could prove very beneficial! And now it seems that it may be feasible to do, from a performance standpoint.
Furthermore, the developers of applications that have been taking a mixed approach of storing images separately from related data that is stored in a relational database may want to reevaluate the position they’re in. If the images can be stored alongside the related data already stored in the database, all without a significant loss of performance, it may very well be worth making changes to the software to take advantage of this. The next time I’m faced with such a task, I will have to consider storing the images within the database, rather than as separate files.