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The Madison Avenue Field GuideA field guide to marketing & advertising, by Brandon Mina

GlossaryData & MartechData Lake

Data & Martech

Data Lake

A storage repository holding large volumes of raw data in native formats, structured or unstructured, until it is needed for analysis.

By Brandon MinaCEO, BrandPilot AIUpdated November 2026

Short answer

A data lake is a storage repository that holds large volumes of raw data in its native format, whether structured, semi-structured or unstructured, until it is needed for analysis. It offers low-cost, flexible storage, but without good governance it can become disorganized and difficult to query reliably.