Compression and encryption
Err..
Yes. They compressed the live production database. With something other than the database's native encryption too.
What has encryption got to do with the compression of the file - they are very different things.
Also, compressing something then trying to send it to tape is unlikely to result in a reduction of tape use, since all drives support on the fly compression and attempting to re-compress compressed data just makes it larger again.
If you really want to encrypt and compress, then compress first, then encrypt. The randomisation of encryption should (if the algorithm is any good) result in virtually uncompressable data.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
