  In cloud computing, storage area networks, remote backup storage, and similar
settings, stored data is modified with updates from new versions. Representing
information and modifying the representation are both expensive. Therefore it
is desirable for the data to not only be compressed but to also be easily
modified during updates. A malleable coding scheme considers both compression
efficiency and ease of alteration, promoting codeword reuse. We examine the
trade-off between compression efficiency and malleability cost-the difficulty
of synchronizing compressed versions-measured as the length of a reused prefix
portion. Through a coding theorem, the region of achievable rates and
malleability is expressed as a single-letter optimization. Relationships to
common information problems are also described.
