If you have been in the IT space and data analytics space for some time now, you might have come across the term Data Lake at least once. But since the technology is in its early days, not a lot of people known what it is all about and thus in this article we will discuss all about data lakes, their benefits and how they are helping in data analytics.
What is a Data Lake?
In the most simplest of terms, a data lake is a centralized storage or repository that allows you to store all your structured and unstructured data, be it of any scale. The main significant difference between a data lake and other centralized repository options available in the market is the fact that a data lake will allow you to store your data without the need of any restructuring and also allows you to run various kinds of data analytics right on the repository.
The various data analytics option present in a data lake starts from dashboards and goes all the way up to visualisations and big data processing, and even real-time analytics and machine learning to help the user for making better decisions.
The Need For A Data Lake
As you might have already guessed, the need for access to a data lake is more important in this day and age than ever before, since the number of companies dealing with big data is constantly on the rise. A recent survey, conducted by Aberdeen found that companies which used data lake facilities were able to perform 9 per cent better to those who didn’t; this fact alone can contribute to the need of using a data lake.
The Benefits of a Data Lake
Similar to any other technology in the market, Data Lake too comes with a host of advantages which helps it stand apart from the rest. Some of the most significant ones are as mentioned below.
- Capability to store and run analytics, thus deriving results from unlimited data sources
- Capability to store all types of data, both structured and unstructured, thus covering everything from social media posts to CRM data
- Increased flexibility from other systems in the market
- Option to eliminate data silos
- Ability to run unlimited queries at any point in time
Data Lake and Data Analytics
As mentioned in the earlier paragraphs, data lakes in today’s world have multitude applications, one of the most significant being the ability to run data analytics on a host of different data types.
Companies which deal with a massive amount of big data, often face with the difficulty of storing different formats at different locations, thus making data analytics a virtually impossible option. But with data lakes, all forms of data, both structured and unstructured can be stored in one place, thus allowing the user to run analytics and visualization from one dashboard and derive results. On top of that, having a single data lake, companies save up on huge amounts of money and make higher profits in the long run.
