File storage for Java based web application

I'm in the processing of designing a Java based web application (Spring based to be specific). One of the key requirement is that, this application has to accept many files of various formats (pdf, jpeg, dwg, png etc.) uploaded by the user. Also, to be able to download back to user's local computer. There will be thousands of files being uploaded/downloaded.

I am thinking of two approaches:

1. 
   

   Upload the documents to the same box where server is running. Mostly all the documents will be uploaded to, and downloaded from box where Tomcat is running. I'm worried that, as the documents grow in number, this may impact overall performance.

   
   


2. 
   

   Upload/download documents to another server dedicated for storing/retrieving of documents.

   
   

If 2nd approach is taken, how Spring application can upload/download files to/from remote server? Or which approach is being used in the similar applications.

Or could you suggest any other optimal way of handling this requirement.

Thanks in advance. Ganesh