# Compressing nginx logs 170x with column storage

DevFeed: [Compressing nginx logs 170x with column storage](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/compressing-nginx-logs-170x-with-column-storage-5394.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://clickhouse.com/blog/log-compression-170x>)

Author: Lionel Palacin; Dale McDiarmid

Published: 2025-10-23T15:48:14Z

Content type: tutorial

Language: en

Sources: [ClickHouse Blog](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/clickhouse-blog.md>)

Topics: [Compression](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/compression.md>), [nginx](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/nginx.md>), [Structured-data](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/structured-data.md>), [SIEM, Security, Observability](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/siem-security-observability.md>), [Amazon S3](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/amazon-s3.md>)

Tags: [caching](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/caching.md>), [compression](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/compression.md>), [logs](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/logs.md>), [nginx](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/nginx.md>), [performance](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/performance.md>), [s3](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/s3.md>), [storage](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/storage.md>), [structure](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/structure.md>)

## AI overview

This article experiments with structuring Nginx access logs into columns, choosing efficient data types, and ordering similar values to achieve over 170x compression. It also explains how compression can reduce storage, I/O, network, and caching costs.

## Source excerpt

Learn how giving logs a structured format can unlock 170x compression and make large-scale log storage practical.