Large Scale File Systems are hard to optimise, easy to misuse and require complex structures to be built around them.
The traditional approach of storing data in a file system is no longer feasible for large storage requirements. A Database has the potential to meet the demands for these requirements by having superior performance & costs. Data can be stored more efficiently in a database that offers indexing & simple object management rather than through complex directory structures with linked files which are both time consuming and costly. The I/O bottleneck will only get worse as the amount of data increases so if you have an existing file system deployed on your servers this may be worth considering downsizing it or replacing it completely with a NoSQL or NewSQL DBMS solution provider.
NoSQL & NewSQL DBMS
As NoSQL & NewSQL DBMSs are all the rage at the minute, many people might consider them to be expensive but they are actually much more cost effective than having a file system in place. File systems require large amounts of disk space when using them without compression and when compressed they still don’t offer any significant storage benefits over databases. There may also be situations where you’re required to run CPU intensive data analysis on your data which can have an impact on your servers resources. Having a DBMS will remove the need for this as its much more effective in comparison with reading from a file system due to it being read only whereas a database will always allow multiple access so resources aren’t wasted. Another issue is I/O bottlenecks which will only get worse as the amount of data increases. A database stores its data in a more effective way without requiring complex directory structures with linked files, they are also much easier to manage by using indexing & object management rather than complicated directory structures.
The DBMS has many advantages over the traditional file system including cost effectiveness, storage space, I/O performance and is better for scaling up your storage requirements. If you want to use hardware efficiently then having a DBMS can be extremely helpful because it makes it possible to better distribute the workload across multiple disks making full use of them whereas traditional file systems can’t do this due to their limitations. This is another reason why databases are ideal for large scale initiatives because they’re designed to handle high volumes of data & are scalable enough to be distributed across multiple servers.
The traditional file system approach has many disadvantages in comparison with a database which gives the user access to a broad range of tools and features that help them manage, analyse and control their data as well as being able to create reports from it more efficiently. One of the most important advantages is being able to have indexing built into your DBMS solution which makes searching for information on large datasets extremely fast whereas this is very time consuming when using a file system due to its limitations on what you can do with it. If you’re looking for a way to centrally store files then this method doesn’t work too well because there isn’t any systematic approach for organising or making any form of search and retrieval.
High volumes of data
File systems are unable to handle high volumes of data and don’t scale well when databases can easily handle them making full use of all available hardware resources . As more servers are added and datasets increase in size, file systems become increasingly difficult to manage whereas databases have been designed from the ground up to handle large scale initiatives and come with a host of features that can be used to manage datasets. Furthermore, building indexes into a DBMS is extremely efficient as it allows you to search for data using filters & searches which can’t be done with file systems because there isn’t any systematic approach for organising them so an index would have little benefit over slow & complex directory structures. Most traditional file systems also lack tools and features necessary for efficient management of large files so if an existing dataset has no custom management built in then this makes the task harder rather than easier whereas having a DBMS means that you’re able to extract information & run reports on your data quickly and efficiently which will save time, money and resources.
However, if you were to store files in a database then this would make the system much more complex and it wouldn’t be as efficient as using a traditional file system because of how expensive it can be to maintain this type of solution due to its limitations on what you can do with data such as directories & indexing. Moreover, there aren’t many tools or features that can help manage existing datasets so this makes the task harder rather than easier which will ultimately lead to limited performance without any way for adding indexes into your DBMS making searching virtually impossible thus taking up valuable time and resources.