On-line Storage
On-line storage requires fast, high-bandwidth, random access storage. The main technologies available that allow this are Magnetic Disks which include SCSI drives, IDE drives (for smaller systems), Digital Versatile Disks, CD ROM's and Floppy disks. Another form of fast storage which is extremely expensive is RAM.

RAM is far too expensive at this point in time to even consider it as a form of on-line storage. CD ROM’s and floppy disks have finite capacities and very slow access rates making them too unsuitable for high quality digital video. SCSI drives have a higher bandwidth than IDE drives and hence greater access rates. With the advent of Digital Versatile Disks, with a storage capacity of up to approximately 15 Gigabytes and similar access rates to that of CD ROMS, it is quite possible that they will be found very useful for archiving purposes.