Online storage

Online data storage refers to the practice of storing electronic data with a third party service accessed via the Internet. It is an alternative to traditional local storage(such as disk or tape drives) and portable storage (such as optical media or flash drives).

Advantages of Online Storage

One of the biggest benefits of online storage is the ability to access data from anywhere. As the number of devices the average person uses continues to grow, syncing or transferring data among devices has become more important. Not only does it help transfer data between devices, online data storage also provides the ability to share files among different users. This is particularly helpful for business users, although it's also popular with consumers who want to share photos, videos and similar materials with their friends and family.

Disadvantages of Online Storage

• Some people worry about the security of cloud storage services, and some vendors have experienced significant outages from time to time, leading to concerns about reliability.

Near line storage

• Near-line storage is a type of storage medium that is external to a computer and provides quick and scalable access to storage devices/capacity within an IT environment.

• This term refers to any storage architecture, infrastructure or technology that resides between online and offline storage sources.

• Near-line storage is used by corporations, including data warehouses, as an inexpensive, scalable way to store large volumes of data.

• Near-line storage devices include DAT and DLTtapes (sequential access), optical storage such as CD-ROM, DVD and Blu-ray, Magneto-Optical which utilize magnetic heads with an optical reader, and standard also slower P-ATA and SATA hard disk drives.

Offline storage

• Offline storage refers to any storage medium that must be physically inserted into a system every time a users wants to access or edit data.
• Offline storage can be any type of internal or external storage that can easily be removed from the computer.
• Offline storage is also known as removable storage. Offline storage is any storage that is not currently online, live or connected to the computer.
• The data stored in offline storage remains permanently in the storage device even if it’s disconnected or unplugged from the computer after the data has been stored.
• Offline storage is generally portable in nature and can be used on different computer systems. Common examples of offline storage include floppy disks, compact disks and USB sticks.