diff --git a/defaults/main.yml b/defaults/main.yml
index 4e8493cb..4c082a2d 100644
--- a/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/defaults/main.yml
@@ -106,6 +106,8 @@ galera_wsrep_provider_options:
 galera_wsrep_sst_auth_user: "root"
 galera_wsrep_sst_auth_password: "{{ galera_root_password  }}"
 
+# Enable compression of backups
+galera_xtrabackup_compression: true
 # xtrabackup parallel/compression/sync threads
 galera_xtrabackup_threads: 4
 
diff --git a/templates/cluster.cnf.j2 b/templates/cluster.cnf.j2
index 57eee347..99f8cc54 100644
--- a/templates/cluster.cnf.j2
+++ b/templates/cluster.cnf.j2
@@ -47,7 +47,9 @@ wsrep_cluster_name = "{{ galera_cluster_name }}"
 wsrep_retry_autocommit = {{ galera_wsrep_retry_autocommit }}
 
 [xtrabackup]
+{% if galera_xtrabackup_compression | bool %}
 compress
+{% endif %}
 parallel = {{ galera_xtrabackup_threads }}
 compress-threads = {{ galera_xtrabackup_threads }}
 rebuild-threads = {{ galera_xtrabackup_threads }}