Data compression is the reduction of the number of bits that need to be stored or transmitted and this process is very important in the internet hosting field because data filed on hard disk drives is generally compressed in order to take less space. You'll find different algorithms for compressing information and they have different efficiency based on the content. Some of them remove only the redundant bits, so no data can be lost, while others erase unnecessary bits, which results in worse quality once the data is uncompressed. The method employs a lot of processing time, therefore an internet hosting server needs to be powerful enough to be able to compress and uncompress data in real time. An instance 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 Semi-dedicated Hosting
Your semi-dedicated hosting account shall be created on a cloud platform that is run on the cutting-edge ZFS file system. The latter uses a compression algorithm called LZ4, that is significantly better than alternative algorithms regarding compression ratio and speed. The gain is noticeable especially when data is being uncompressed and not only is LZ4 quicker than other algorithms, but it is also quicker in uncompressing data than a system is in reading from a HDD. This is why Internet sites running on a platform which uses LZ4 compression perform faster as the algorithm is most efficient when it processes compressible data i.e. website content. One more advantage of using LZ4 is that the backup copies of the semi-dedicated accounts which we keep take a lot less space and they are generated a lot quicker, which enables us to have a couple of daily backups of your files and databases.