title: HBASE How to reduce storage footprint
body: <p>We are using HBase for small objects. I notice that HBase storage footprint is way too huge. The ratio between raw data vs. HBase data is reaching 5X. </p>
  
  <p>FYI, our data consists of small objects. Each object has roughly 20 fields (which are stored in each cell of HBase table). Since the average size of each field's value is 20 bytes, the data overhead of HBase for storing a value (column family, column qualifier, timestamp, ...) can make the HBase file significantly larger. </p>
  
  <p>Currently, we are using DATA_BLOCK_ENCODING algorithm (FAST_DIFF) to save some space. However, we cannot reduce it down to somewhere near 2X (compared to raw data).</p>
  
  <p>Have any of you faced this behavior of HBase? What is your suggestion?</p>