5.4.6. Working with InnoDB Compressed Tables

By using the SQL syntax and MySQL configuration options for compression, you can create tables where the data is stored in compressed form. Compression can help to improve both raw performance and scalability. The compression means less data is transferred between disk and memory, and takes up less space on disk and in memory. The benefits are amplified for tables with secondary indexes, because index data is compressed also. Compression can be especially important for SSD storage devices, because they tend to have lower capacity than HDD devices.