Would you store binary data in database or in file system?
This is a question which has been asked before (large-text-and-images-in-sql) but mainly for data which will be changed. In my case the data will be stored and never changed. Just seems sensible to keep everything together.
Are there any reasons why I should not store static binary data in a database?
Assuming it is a sensible thing to do, are there any advantages to storing such data in separate tables? (You might begin to realise now that I'm not a DB expert...)
Clarify: There will probably be no more than 10-20 users but these will be in the US and in the UK. The binary data will have to be transfered in any case.
Answer
The advantage of storing data in the DB is taking advantage of DB security mechanisms and reducing maintanence cost (backups, ...). The disadvantage of it is increasing DB load and consuming connections (which might be expensive for per-connection licensed database servers). If you are using SQL Server 2008, FILESTREAM might be a nice alternative.
By the way, for Web apps (or any other apps that might need streaming the data), it's usually more sensible to store data outside DB.