What is Sitecore's recommendation for managing large media files?

Using Azure Blob Storage or similar services is Sitecore's recommended approach for managing large media files because these cloud-based storage solutions offer scalable, secure, and efficient handling of media assets. They are designed to manage large volumes of data and provide benefits such as improved performance, high availability, and redundancy. By offloading media files to Azure Blob Storage, organizations can free up on-premise resources, reduce the load on the Sitecore server, and facilitate faster media retrieval for end-users.

In contrast, storing large media files in the local media library can lead to performance issues, as Sitecore's content delivery is optimized for smaller assets. Compressing media files can help reduce their size but may affect quality and does not address the underlying management and storage concerns. Limiting media file size to under 1MB could restrict the quality and usability of media assets, especially for high-resolution images or videos, which often exceed this threshold. Thus, utilizing Azure Blob Storage is the most effective strategy for handling larger media files in a Sitecore environment.