However, there is one downside of compression: data has to be decompressed before it becomes usable.

Not only does compression of files saves space on the server, but it also makes it easy to transfer files quickly using less bandwidth. It reduces the need for new storage devices and improves database performance. Today, compressing files has become a very common practice. Since then, there has been an ever-growing demand, fueled by the development of the Internet, for efficient compression methods that can reduce the size of any given file as much as possible. In the early 1970s, computer scientists developed algorithms to reduce file size.