More than the other Oracle Cloud EPM applications, Account Reconciliation ("ARCS") has the most need for file attachments. For each recon, there could very will be a requirement to upload a bank statement or other supporting documentation. If these are stored in the regular EPM database, it can quickly use all of the available space, make snapshots larger (since the attachments are included), increase the time to clone production to test, etc.
Fortunately, Oracle has thought about this and has a solution ready. Instead of storing the attachments within the ARCS environment, attachments can be stored in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Object Storage. Basically (and I'm sure that I'm oversimplifying this) it's like having box.com on steroids. The easy part of this is that the product is built to use it, so once it is configured the users do nothing different and have the same experience.
To enable, go into System Settings and on the left click Object Storage. Provide the URL, ID, and password and click Validate and Save.
Once enabled, a migration process moves existing attachments to the object storage. Any new attachments automatically go there. The bottom part of the screen above, Attachments and References, provides information about the items in Object Storage.
Another benefit of switching to OCI Object Storage is that the administrator can choose to increase the maximum file attachment size from 20MB to 100MB.
In case you're wondering, yes, there is a cost. The cost is US$0.0255 per GB per month. So 150GB of storage would cost $45.90 per year.
If attachments are not a huge part of account recs, then this probably isn't needed. But if attachments are a way of life, then this option should be considered.
Here is the pricing link for details: https://www.oracle.com/cloud/storage/pricing/
Here is the link in the help regarding setup: https://docs.oracle.com/en/cloud/saas/account-reconcile-cloud/suarc/setup_object_storage_attachments_config_arcs.html
