Data compression is the decrease of the number of bits that need to be stored or transmitted and this process is quite important in the internet hosting field as data stored on HDDs is typically compressed so as to take less space. You will find many different algorithms for compressing data and they provide different efficiency depending on the content. Some of them remove just the redundant bits, so that no data can be lost, while others remove unneeded bits, which results in worse quality when your data is uncompressed. The method requires plenty of processing time, which means that a web hosting server needs to be powerful enough so as to be able to compress and uncompress data right away. An example how binary code may be compressed is by "remembering" that there're five consecutive 1s, for example, as an alternative to storing all five 1s.

Data Compression in Web Hosting

The compression algorithm which we work with on the cloud hosting platform where your new web hosting account shall be created is known as LZ4 and it is applied by the state-of-the-art ZFS file system which powers the platform. The algorithm is more advanced than the ones other file systems employ as 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 even faster than information can be read from a hard disk drive. Consequently, LZ4 improves the performance of any Internet site hosted on a server that uses the algorithm. We take full advantage of LZ4 in an additional way - its speed and compression ratio make it possible for us to produce multiple daily backups of the entire content of all accounts and keep them for a month. Not only do the backup copies take less space, but also their generation won't slow the servers down like it can often happen with some other file systems.

Data Compression in Semi-dedicated Hosting

Your semi-dedicated hosting account will be created on a cloud platform which is run on the advanced ZFS file system. The latter uses a compression algorithm called LZ4, which is much better than other algorithms with regard to compression ratio and speed. The gain is visible particularly 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 hard disk drive. This is why sites running on a platform that employs LZ4 compression perform better since the algorithm is most efficient when it processes compressible data i.e. site content. A further advantage of using LZ4 is that the backup copies of the semi-dedicated accounts which we keep need much less space and they are generated quicker, which allows us to have a number of daily backups of your files and databases.