Erasure Coding

Definition

Erasure coding is a data protection method that breaks data into fragments, expands and encodes them with redundant pieces, and stores them across different locations. Unlike simple replication (which stores full copies), erasure coding provides the same level of protection with significantly less storage overhead. A common scheme like Reed-Solomon 8+3 can tolerate 3 simultaneous failures while using only 37% overhead, compared to 200% for triple replication.

Written by
Daniel Kovacs

Updated Feb 11, 2026

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