We theoretically analyze the light-storing process in optical microresonator arrays. We propose a passive and an active scheme to strongly slow light. The two mechanisms rely on microresonator chains whose high order dispersion is optimized. The unit cell of the systems is a short sequence of two or four resonators. In the passive process we show that the cancellation of the third order of dispersion allows the propagation of short pulses with no significant distortion in a microresonator array. The second process needs the use of active microresonators whose loss and gain are dynamically tuned. The structure is made of only four resonators and is optimized to avoid pulse distortion as it is the case in the passive scheme. The loss and gain modulations allow the resonant structure to be isolated from the access waveguide and optical pulse to be stored.