insideBIGDATA | How to Safeguard Your “Data Lake” for Better Decision Making
The term “data lake” can be incredibly misleading.
When most people think of a lake, it’s a serene setting full of clear water, or a liquid playground where you plop in a boat and swim for the day. But in business settings, the data lake — a central repository where raw data is stored — is often anything but. It’s more like a murky swamp of information, with hidden hazards that can lead to bad business decisions and lost revenue.
It is absolutely critical for organizations that deal with large amounts of data to carefully protect their information repositories, just as natural lakes often come with rules and regulations to make sure those who swim are safe. The reasons to do so are overwhelming, as 40 percent of people surveyed recently by PwC report having made a decision based on data. But, if decisions are being made with flawed, inconsistent data, it makes the whole effort of collecting and storing it in the first place irrelevant.
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