Nearline HDD
A class of high-capacity, lower-RPM hard drives intended for always-on but not primary-tier storage.
In contemporary vendor language, “nearline” means high-capacity enterprise HDDs kept online for bulk cloud object, analytics, and backup-target tiers—typically 7200 RPM 3.5-inch SATA or SAS drives with enterprise duty-cycle and vibration specs—not low-latency transactional spindles. Recording tech on these lines adopts density tools first (helium, SMR, HAMR, MAMR). The word historically also meant automated tape/optical “near online” libraries in IBM-era usage; do not confuse marketing nearline HDD with that older library sense. Nearline is a product class and workload target, not a single recording mode.
Relations
- related
- hdd, helium-hdd, smr, cmr, hamr, hot-warm-cold
Advantages
- Lowest cost per terabyte among spinning disk offerings for warm/cold data.