Data compression is the compacting of data by reducing the number of bits which are stored or transmitted. Because of this, the compressed data requires less disk space than the original one, so additional content could be stored on identical amount of space. You'll find various compression algorithms which work in different ways and with several of them only the redundant bits are erased, which means that once the data is uncompressed, there is no decrease in quality. Others erase unneeded bits, but uncompressing the data at a later time will result in reduced quality compared to the original. Compressing and uncompressing content takes a large amount of system resources, and in particular CPU processing time, so each and every web hosting platform which employs compression in real time should have ample power to support this attribute. An example how information can be compressed is to substitute a binary code such as 111111 with 6x1 i.e. "remembering" what number of consecutive 1s or 0s there should be instead of keeping the entire code.

Data Compression in Cloud Web Hosting

The compression algorithm which we employ on the cloud hosting platform where your new cloud web hosting account shall be created is known as LZ4 and it's used by the cutting-edge ZFS file system that powers the system. The algorithm is much better than the ones other file systems work with since its compression ratio is much higher and it processes data a lot faster. The speed is most noticeable when content is being uncompressed since this happens quicker than information can be read from a hard disk. Therefore, LZ4 improves the performance of any Internet site hosted on a server which uses the algorithm. We use LZ4 in one more way - its speed and compression ratio make it possible for us to produce several daily backup copies of the full content of all accounts and store them for a month. Not only do our backup copies take less space, but their generation will not slow the servers down like it often happens with alternative file systems.

Data Compression in Semi-dedicated Servers

Your semi-dedicated server account will be created on a cloud platform that runs using the innovative ZFS file system. The latter uses a compression algorithm known as LZ4, that's significantly better than alternative algorithms with regard to compression ratio and speed. The gain is visible especially when data is being uncompressed and not only is LZ4 much quicker than other algorithms, but it is also faster in uncompressing data than a system is in reading from a HDD. Because of this sites running on a platform which employs LZ4 compression perform faster as the algorithm is most efficient when it processes compressible data i.e. website content. Another advantage of using LZ4 is that the backup copies of the semi-dedicated accounts that we keep need much less space and they're generated quicker, which enables us to keep a number of daily backups of your files and databases.