Nearline storage (a contraction of near-online) is used to describe an intermediate type of data storage that represents a compromise between:
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Online storage: Supporting frequent, very rapid access to data
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Offline storage/archiving: Supporting backups or long-term storage, with infrequent access to data
Both archiving and nearline allow for a reduction of the database size. This results in improved speed of performance in the online system. However, accessing archived data is more complex and slower than when using nearline storage, and it can also negatively affect the performance of the main database in the case of a data reload into that database.
