The term data compression describes reducing the number of bits of information which should be stored or transmitted. This can be done with or without the loss of info, so what will be removed in the course of the compression will be either redundant data or unnecessary one. When the data is uncompressed subsequently, in the first case the content and the quality shall be identical, while in the second case the quality will be worse. There're various compression algorithms that are more effective for different type of data. Compressing and uncompressing data frequently takes plenty of processing time, therefore the server performing the action should have ample resources in order to be able to process the data quick enough. One simple example how information can be compressed is to store just how many sequential positions should have 1 and how many should have 0 in the binary code as an alternative to storing the particular 1s and 0s.

Data Compression in Shared Website Hosting

The compression algorithm which we work with on the cloud hosting platform where your new shared website hosting account will be created is known as LZ4 and it is applied by the advanced ZFS file system that powers the platform. The algorithm is superior to the ones other file systems employ since its compression ratio is higher and it processes data considerably faster. The speed is most noticeable when content is being uncompressed as this happens at a faster rate than data can be read from a hard disk. Because of this, LZ4 improves the performance of every Internet site stored on a server which uses this particular algorithm. We use LZ4 in an additional way - its speed and compression ratio make it possible for us to produce several daily backup copies of the whole content of all accounts and store them for one month. Not only do these backup copies take less space, but also their generation will not slow the servers down like it often happens with other file systems.

Data Compression in Semi-dedicated Hosting

The ZFS file system that runs on the cloud platform where your semi-dedicated hosting account will be created uses a powerful compression algorithm called LZ4. It is one of the best algorithms out there and certainly the most efficient one when it comes to compressing and uncompressing web content, as its ratio is very high and it'll uncompress data at a faster rate than the same data can be read from a hard drive if it were uncompressed. That way, using LZ4 will accelerate any kind of website that runs on a platform where the algorithm is present. This high performance requires plenty of CPU processing time, that is provided by the numerous clusters working together as part of our platform. In addition, LZ4 makes it possible for us to generate several backups of your content every day and save them for a month as they'll take a smaller amount of space than standard backups and will be generated much more quickly without loading the servers.