WiredTiger includes a number of optional compression techniques. Configuring compression generally decreases on-disk and in-memory resource requirements and the amount of I/O, and increases CPU cost when rows are read and written.
Configuring compression may change application throughput. For example, in applications using solid-state drives (where I/O is less expensive), turning off compression may increase application performance by reducing CPU costs; in applications where I/O costs are more expensive, turning on compression may increase application performance by reducing the overall number of I/O operations.
An example of turning on row-store key prefix compression:
An example of turning on row-store or column-store dictionary compression:
See File formats and compression for more information on available compression techniques.