How much data compression can I expect?
Rhinoback uses compression technology to pack as much data as possible in to the allocated space on the offsite storage systems. The compression makes your backups and restores faster because fewer bytes of data are transmitted over the network. And data compression saves you money because you can backup up more data into the same space.
The amount of compression is expressed as a ratio of (original file size - comressed file size) / original file size . So if a 100,000 byte file is comressed to 30,000 bytes, then the compression ratio = (100,000 - 30,00) / 100,000 = 70%. In the above example the file was compressed 70% so the storage space needed is only 30% of the original file size. The data compression algorithms used by Rhinoback are lossless compression, meaning that no data is lost in the compression. When the file is decompressed, the file is an exact copy of the original version.
The actual amount of compression varies according to the contents of the files being compressed. Below are some ranges that are typical for various types of files:
| Text files, Documents, Spreadsheets |
75% - 85% |
| Programs, Executables, Dlls |
20% - 30% |
| Databases, Exchange, SQL Server |
50% - 80% |
| Pictures, Music, Movies, Zip files |
0% (already compressed) |
The mix of files on a particular computer will determine the overall compression ratio for the account. On average Rhinoback customers see an over all compression ratio of around 30% to 50%.
