A data lake is a centralized data repository containing structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data at any scale. Data can be stored in its raw form without any transformations, or some preprocessing can be done before it is consumed. From this repository, data can be extracted and consumed to populate dashboards, perform analytics, and drive machine learning pipelines to derive insights and enhance decision-making.

Data lakes allow you to break down data silos and bring data into a single central repository. You can store various data formats at any scale and low cost. Data lakes provide you with a single source of truth and allow you access to the same data using a variety of analytics and machine-learning tools.