Austin(@IamAroke):Storing user-uploaded files directly on application server local disk works fine in development, but completely breaks horizontal scaling. The moment your cloud infrastructure auto-scales to 3 instances, a user who uploads an avatar on Instance 1 will get a 404 Not Found whenever their subsequent request lands on Instance 2 or 3.

Austin

@IamAroke

Senior .NET Engineer | Helping devs write better backend systems & grow careers | Sharing real lessons from the trenches

Joined September 2019

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Austin@IamAroke

2026.09.22 11:24

Storing user-uploaded files directly on application server local disk works fine in development, but completely breaks horizontal scaling. The moment your cloud infrastructure auto-scales to 3 instances, a user who uploads an avatar on Instance 1 will get a 404 Not Found whenever their subsequent request lands on Instance 2 or 3.