images in db

In our company we are currently discussing the possibility of storing images in the database. The question comes down to should we store them in an Oracle database or should we find some file based document management system? If we were to use a document management system then Oracle would store the file name and some other info.

The problem that I see it is that while the client machines are some flavor of MS Windows. The server could be Netware, NT, or some flavor of UNIX. The network protocol is probably going to be ipx/spx or tcp/ip. ( It depends what the purchaser has in terms of equipment.) Certainly, Oracle can handle all these platforms and the protocols. I am not sure about this yet to be determined document management system. (then the whole UPPERCASE vs lowercase sensitivity issue on UNIX etc.)

Are theie any document management systems that people can recommend or is Oracle a better choice for storing the image (long raw). No another RDBMS is not a choice. What are the disadvantages of using Oracle vs a document management system (either way network saturation will be a problem). What are the advantages.

Jim Kennedy Received on Sun Mar 24 1996 - 00:00:00 CET