Store data on File Server or SQL database

Question

We have a solution which includes storage of PDF documents.

Currently we have 50,000 documents that are 0.6 MB each (all documents same size)

We currently store these documents in varbinary(max) fields in SQL Server.

Everything works fine now.

Problem is that we are expecting to have over 1 million documents.

Shoud we continue to store these documents in SQL Server, or should we move them to a file system on a SAN? If we move them to a SAN what is the max number of files per directory?

Answer 1

Have you considered FILESTREAM which combines the 2 ideas (file and database)?

FILESTREAM integrates the SQL Server Database Engine with an NTFS file system by storing varbinary(max) binary large object (BLOB) data as files on the file system. Transact-SQL statements can insert, update, query, search, and back up FILESTREAM data. Win32 file system interfaces provide streaming access to the data.