Data compression is the reduction of the number of bits that need to be stored or transmitted and the process is very important in the web hosting field due to the fact that info recorded on hard disks is often compressed to take less space. You can find various algorithms for compressing info and they offer different efficiency based on the content. A lot of them remove only the redundant bits, so no data can be lost, while others erase unnecessary bits, which results in worse quality when the particular data is uncompressed. This process needs plenty of processing time, which means that a hosting server should be powerful enough in order to be able to compress and uncompress data right away. An instance how binary code can be compressed is by "remembering" that there're five consecutive 1s, for example, in contrast to storing all five 1s.

Data Compression in Web Hosting

The compression algorithm that we employ on the cloud internet hosting platform where your new web hosting account will be created is called LZ4 and it's used by the revolutionary ZFS file system that powers the platform. The algorithm is superior to the ones other file systems work with since its compression ratio is a lot higher and it processes data significantly faster. The speed is most noticeable when content is being uncompressed since this happens even faster than data can be read from a hard drive. Consequently, LZ4 improves the performance of every site located on a server which uses this algorithm. We take advantage of LZ4 in one more way - its speed and compression ratio allow us to generate several daily backups of the entire content of all accounts and store them for thirty days. Not only do these backup copies take less space, but also their generation doesn't slow the servers down like it often happens with some other file systems.

Data Compression in Semi-dedicated Hosting

Your semi-dedicated hosting account will be created on a cloud platform which runs on the advanced ZFS file system. The latter uses a compression algorithm called LZ4, that's far better than various other algorithms in terms of compression ratio and speed. The gain is significant particularly when data is being uncompressed and not only is LZ4 much faster than other algorithms, but it is also faster in uncompressing data than a system is in reading from a hard drive. This is the reason why sites running on a platform which employs LZ4 compression perform better as the algorithm is most effective when it processes compressible data i.e. site content. One more advantage of using LZ4 is that the backup copies of the semi-dedicated accounts that we keep take a lot less space and they're generated quicker, which enables us to keep multiple daily backups of your files and databases.