What is the primary purpose of Erasure Coding?

The primary purpose of Erasure Coding is to provide a data protection scheme that enhances fault tolerance. This technique works by breaking down data into fragments, expanding it with redundant data pieces, and then distributing those pieces across multiple locations or storage devices. In the event of hardware failure or data corruption, Erasure Coding allows for the original data to be reconstructed from the remaining fragments, thereby ensuring data availability and resilience.

This method is particularly beneficial in large-scale storage environments where data protection and integrity are crucial. By using mathematical algorithms, Erasure Coding achieves a balance between resource utilization and reliability, making it a preferred choice for cloud storage and distributed systems. This approach allows organizations to maintain high availability of data with minimal overhead compared to traditional replication methods.