Patent ID: 8463944

Claim:
A method for determining an optimal compression technique for each data file in a set of data files when creating an archive of the set of data files, the method comprising the steps of: responsive to receiving an instruction to archive the set of data files, for each data file of the set of data files: a computer determining a file type and a file size of the data file; the computer selecting an optimal compression utility for the data file based on the file type and the file size of the data file, wherein the computer selecting the optimal compression utility for the data file based on the file type and the file size of the data file further comprises the steps of: the computer sending, using a local archiving application, the file type and the file size of the data file to an archive meta data service, wherein the archive meta data service selects the optimal compression utility for the data file based on the file type and the file size of the data file by: responsive to receiving the file type and the file size from the computer, querying, by the archive meta data service, a configuration file for an entry matching the file type and the file size of the data file, wherein the configuration file comprises historical compression information from a plurality of subscribing client archive applications; and sending, by the archive meta data service, a recommendation to the local archiving application recommending the optimal compression utility, wherein the optical compression utility is specified in the entry matching the file type and the file size of the data file; and the computer compressing the data file using the optimal compression utility to form a compressed data file; the computer creating an archive file that includes the compressed data file for each data file of the set of data files; and the computer storing meta data in the archive file, wherein the meta data includes, for each data file of the set of data files, a meta compression format identifier that identifies the optimal compression utility used to compress the data file.