A data lake is a storage repository that holds a vast amount of raw data in its native format until it is needed for analytics applications. While a traditional data warehouse stores data in hierarchical dimensions and tables, a data lake uses a flat architecture to store data, primarily in files or object storage.

What is data lake and example?

A data lake is a centralized repository for hosting raw, unprocessed enterprise data. ... Data stored in a lake can be anything, from completely unstructured data like text documents or images, to semistructured data such as hierarchical web content, to the rigidly structured rows and columns of relational databases.

What is the point of a data lake?

The primary purpose of a data lake is to make organizational data from different sources accessible to various end-users like business analysts, data engineers, data scientists, product managers, executives, etc., to enable these personas to leverage insights in a cost-effective manner for improved business performance ...