The benefits of Data compression: • Significant savings in disk storage space. • Fewer page reads, because more rows can fit on a page. • Reduced disk I/O activity, because more compressed rows than uncompressed rows are included in a page. • Ability to compress older data that is not accessed often, such as archived tables, while the frequently accessed data can be stored in the uncompressed form. • Possibility to free space no longer required for a table. • Faster backup and restore.