diff --git a/swh/objstorage/cloud/objstorage_cloud.py b/swh/objstorage/cloud/objstorage_cloud.py
--- a/swh/objstorage/cloud/objstorage_cloud.py
+++ b/swh/objstorage/cloud/objstorage_cloud.py
@@ -4,9 +4,11 @@
 # See top-level LICENSE file for more information
 
 import abc
+import collections
 
 from swh.model import hashutil
 from swh.objstorage.objstorage import ObjStorage, compute_hash
+from swh.objstorage.objstorage import compressors, decompressors
 from swh.objstorage.exc import ObjNotFoundError, Error
 
 from libcloud.storage import providers
@@ -22,12 +24,13 @@
     https://libcloud.readthedocs.io/en/latest/storage/api.html).
 
     """
-    def __init__(self, container_name, **kwargs):
+    def __init__(self, container_name, compression=None, **kwargs):
         super().__init__(**kwargs)
         self.driver = self._get_driver(**kwargs)
         self.container_name = container_name
         self.container = self.driver.get_container(
             container_name=container_name)
+        self.compression = compression
 
     def _get_driver(self, **kwargs):
         """Initialize a driver to communicate with the cloud
@@ -118,7 +121,11 @@
         return self.add(content, obj_id, check_presence=False)
 
     def get(self, obj_id):
-        return bytes(self._get_object(obj_id).as_stream())
+        obj = b''.join(self._get_object(obj_id).as_stream())
+        try:
+            return decompressors[self.compression](obj)
+        except Exception:
+            return obj
 
     def check(self, obj_id):
         # Check that the file exists, as _get_object raises ObjNotFoundError
@@ -142,11 +149,30 @@
 
         """
         hex_obj_id = hashutil.hash_to_hex(obj_id)
+
         try:
             return self.driver.get_object(self.container_name, hex_obj_id)
         except ObjectDoesNotExistError:
             raise ObjNotFoundError(obj_id)
 
+    def _compressor(self, data):
+        comp = compressors[self.compression]()
+        got_cchunk = False
+        for chunk in data:
+            cchunk = comp.compress(chunk)
+            if cchunk:
+                got_cchunk = True
+                yield cchunk
+        trail = comp.flush()
+        if got_cchunk:
+            yield trail
+        else:
+            data = decompressors[self.compression](trail)
+            if len(data) < len(trail):
+                yield data
+            else:
+                yield trail
+
     def _put_object(self, content, obj_id):
         """Create an object in the cloud storage.
 
@@ -155,11 +181,12 @@
 
         """
         hex_obj_id = hashutil.hash_to_hex(obj_id)
-        self.driver.upload_object_via_stream(iter(content), self.container,
-                                             hex_obj_id)
 
-    def list_content(self):
-        return iter(self)
+        if not isinstance(content, collections.Iterator):
+            content = (content,)
+        self.driver.upload_object_via_stream(
+            self._compressor(content),
+            self.container, hex_obj_id)
 
 
 class AwsCloudObjStorage(CloudObjStorage):
diff --git a/swh/objstorage/objstorage.py b/swh/objstorage/objstorage.py
--- a/swh/objstorage/objstorage.py
+++ b/swh/objstorage/objstorage.py
@@ -5,6 +5,9 @@
 
 import abc
 from itertools import dropwhile, islice
+import bz2
+import lzma
+import zlib
 
 from swh.model import hashutil
 
@@ -34,6 +37,29 @@
     ).digest().get(ID_HASH_ALGO)
 
 
+class NullCompressor:
+    def compress(self, data):
+        return data
+
+    def flush(self):
+        return b''
+
+
+decompressors = {
+    'bz2': bz2.decompress,
+    'lzma': lzma.decompress,
+    'zlib': zlib.decompress,
+    None: lambda x: x,
+    }
+
+compressors = {
+    'bz2': bz2.BZ2Compressor,
+    'lzma': lzma.LZMACompressor,
+    'zlib': zlib.compressobj,
+    None: NullCompressor,
+    }
+
+
 class ObjStorage(metaclass=abc.ABCMeta):
     """ High-level API to manipulate the Software Heritage object storage.