US Patent 9569357 Managing compressed data in a storage system

Systems, methods, and computer readable storage mediums for optimistically managing compressed data in a storage system. When possible, multiple input blocks are compressed into a buffer and stored in a single physical block on a storage device. The metadata of the multiple input blocks can be managed separately. A fingerprint of the compressed buffer can be generated and used as an index to the single physical block. Alternatively, fingerprints of the uncompressed input blocks can be generated, and reference counts can be maintained to track the number of input blocks which reference the compressed buffer.