Storing Word docs, XL spreadsheets etc in Oracle - Why?

[JMac]

Simple enough question. I know all about being able to store documents in an Oracle database. My question is why would you do this? What great business benefit to a company in storing documents in this fashion? I can think of two: security and recoverability, but if the network is secure and backed-up, is Oracle any better?

Have I missed something here folks? Anyone know any good on-line docs or resources where I can read up the concepts in a business scenario?

[Tarry]

The indexing structure on the OS('s) is getting smarter/faster and I wonder myself what's the point of storing it all in the a database. unless you want everyone to do a select * from bigdoc.bigdocos;

but I'm sure there are stronger arguments than these to store them in db and vice versa.

[mrchrispy]

all I can think of is some kinda backend to a website or custom app that serves up documents from a massive library. A site that had lots of pictures would be a good example of this......apparently people like looking at pictures on the interweb

[nagarjuna]

What abt in the view of backup and recovery?

If it is external file, we will have to manually check whether all the files R there or not in the case of restoration.

Security is another reason. Instead of buying 3rd party OS level security tools, we can explore Oracle server's security features.

These points R with respect to DBA's views. Management ppl can have different idea.

[TimHall]

Hi.

Remember also, using RMAN gives you block level recovery. If you have a problem with a large image or document you would have to restore the whole file from an OS backup. With Oracle restore/recovery issue is much reduced.

The next release of Windows will incorporate a database layer on top of the filesystem (WinFS) which will essentially act as a clever indexing tool. If you're going half-way why not go the whole hog!

Cheers

[pando]

well if you store these in the database you can query and search right?