In my thesis I need to test different architectures. A request to a REST web service developed using Apache CXF and Spring MVC with MySQL as back end serving references(a field in database) to images,audio and video files stored in file system. In the response message, what is the best method to send the content to the client(another application using the service which I developed). URI: http://www.filmservices.com/film/{id} A client here is not the end user. Send the encoded hyperlink's(where the content is stored in the file system) to the client, so that the client renders the response and displays it to the browser. Use Base64 to encode the message(image,audio,video) and send it to the client. Main concern is performance.