Techniques for data processing may include: receiving, at a data storage system, a write operation that writes a data chunk; selecting, in accordance with one or more criteria related to load of at least one of the data storage system and the hardware device, a compression level to be used in connection with compressing the data chunk; issuing a request to a hardware device to perform compression processing that compresses the data chunk in accordance with the compression level selected and generates a compressed form of the data chunk; and storing the compressed form of the data chunk on a non-volatile storage device. The criteria may include any one or more of processor workload of the data storage system, write cache level, response time of the hardware device, and read load.