I am evaluating databases for use in a large project that will hold image data as blobs. I know, everybody says to just store pointers to files on the disk...can't do it here...the images are of a confidential nature and access to the database (and resulting client app) will be highly restricted. The underlying platform will likely be Linux though Solaris x86-64 has been suggested as well.
I did some tests with MySQL and found the results very sub-par...the standard blob field only holds 64k (they have three types of blobs for whatever reason) and the real problem is that my uploads and downloads have failed because of packet size issues...this can be solved somewhat with server settings, but I get the impression that blobs are barely supported.
So turning to Postgresql, can I get any recommendations, suggestions and tips on blob handling in the database? The image sizes will be pretty variable, from a few kilobytes to several hundred megabytes, so I need something that will handle the various file sizes, hopefully transparently.