Systems and methods for providing fast and efficient data compression using a combination of content independent data compression and content dependent data compression. In one aspect, a method for compressing data comprises the steps of: analyzing a data block of an input data stream to identify a data type of the block, the input data stream comprising a plurality of disparate data type; performing content dependent data compression on the data block, if the data type of the data block is identified; performing content independent data compression on the data block, if the data type of the data block is not identified.