Store Files in SQL Server or keep them on the File Server?

Question

Currently we have thousands of Microsoft Word files, Excel files, PDF\'s, images etc stored in folders/sub folders. These are generated by an application on a regular basis

Answer 1

A big benefit of stroing docs in the DB is it becomes much easier to control security access to them, as you can do it all via access control in your app. Storing them on a file server requires dealing with access priveledges at the file and folder level to prevent any direct access. Also have them in a DB makes for a single point of backup, so you can more easily make a full copy and/or move it around if needed.