Data compression is the compacting of info by decreasing the number of bits which are stored or transmitted. Consequently, the compressed info requires less disk space than the initial one, so extra content can be stored using the same amount of space. There are various compression algorithms which function in different ways and with many of them only the redundant bits are deleted, so once the data is uncompressed, there is no decrease in quality. Others delete excessive bits, but uncompressing the data at a later time will result in lower quality in comparison with the original. Compressing and uncompressing content requires a huge amount of system resources, and in particular CPU processing time, so each and every Internet hosting platform that employs compression in real time should have ample power to support this feature. An example how data can be compressed is to replace a binary code such as 111111 with 6x1 i.e. "remembering" the number of consecutive 1s or 0s there should be instead of keeping the entire code.

Data Compression in Cloud Hosting

The compression algorithm used by the ZFS file system that runs on our cloud hosting platform is called LZ4. It can supercharge the performance of any website hosted in a cloud hosting account on our end as not only does it compress info much better than algorithms used by other file systems, but it uncompresses data at speeds which are higher than the hard disk drive reading speeds. This can be done by using a great deal of CPU processing time, which is not a problem for our platform considering that it uses clusters of powerful servers working together. An additional advantage of LZ4 is that it enables us to create backup copies more speedily and on reduced disk space, so we will have a couple of daily backups of your databases and files and their generation will not change the performance of the servers. In this way, we can always recover any content that you may have deleted by mistake.

Data Compression in Semi-dedicated Hosting

In case you host your sites in a semi-dedicated hosting account with our company, you'll be able to experience the advantages of LZ4 - the powerful compression algorithm employed by the ZFS file system that's behind our advanced cloud hosting platform. What differentiates LZ4 from all of the other algorithms out there is that it has an improved compression ratio and it is much faster, particularly with regard to uncompressing web content. It does that even quicker than uncompressed data can be read from a hard drive, so your sites will perform better. The higher speed is at the expense of using plenty of CPU processing time, that's not an issue for our platform as it consists of a large number of clusters working together. Besides the better performance, you'll also have multiple daily backup copies at your disposal, so you'll be able to restore any deleted content with just a couple of clicks. The backups are available for a whole month and we can afford to keep them because they need a lot less space compared to conventional backups.