Nearline Storage (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Nearline storage (where the word "nearline" is a contraction of near-online) is a term used in computer science to describe an intermediate type of data storage that represents a compromise between online storage (supporting frequent, very rapid access to data) and offline storage/archiving (used for backups or long-term storage, with infrequent access to data). The nearline storage system knows on which volume (cartridge) the data resides, and usually asks a robot to retrieve it from this physical location (usually: a tape library or optical jukebox) and put it into a tape drive or optical disc drive to enable access by bringing the data it contains online. This process is not instantaneous, but it only requires a few seconds.