Compare that to the 636 MB file I got when not using compression. Here's what else is cool: You can change the default compression behavior of your entire server. On the Database Settings tab of the ...

Data compression is a technique that reduces the amount of space required to store data in SQL Server. It can help you optimize the performance, scalability, and availability of your database, as ...

SQL Server 2008 Data Compression is an intelligent compression strategy. ... In this mode, the database engine will look for similar column values across multiple rows on a single data page.

Because a compressed backup is smaller than an uncompressed backup of the same data, compressing a backup typically requires less device I/O and therefore usually increases backup speed significantly.