Smashing Bits: Comparing Data Compression Techniques in Storage

As all flash arrays mature into full feature platforms, vendors are seeking new ways to differentiate themselves and prepare for the next killer app. This presentation will first talk about industrial internet of things and how to prepare for these workloads. With these new workloads, storage controller overhead can be high for data compression and lead to significant performance impacts. This presentation compares the performance of different data compression algorithms (LZO, LZ4, GZIP, and BZIP2) using a CPU versus acceleration hardware. Comparisons will be shown in terms of throughput, CPU utilization, and power. By using data compression accelerators, storage arrays can increase write throughput, storage capacity, and flash cycle life. Storage system designers attending will understand the tradeoffs between CPU based compression algorithms and data compression accelerators.

Learning Objectives

Introduce Industrial IoT and work load types.
Introduce different compression algorithms (LZO, LZ4, GZIP, and BZIP2)
Analyze performance differences between compression algorithms
Introduce hardware compression
Understand the tradeoffs of using CPU based algorithms vs. acceleration hardware