Hotel California
During frequent and extended commercial breaks of the Olympics broadcast, I noticed a repeated commercial for a company I did not recognize. The company offers data management solutions based on a new buzzword, namely data lakes. I checked its meaning on the web: “A data lake is a centralized repository that allows you to store all your structured and unstructured data at any scale. You can store your data as-is, without having first to structure the data, and run different types of analytics — from dashboards and visualizations to big data processing, real-time analytics, and machine learning to guide better decisions.” Sounds very powerful and promising. Or is it a trap that would lead you to move all your data into a single company’s system?
For some reason, this push to move into data lakes brought back lyrics from the famous Eagles song with a mystical meaning, “Hotel California”:
“Relax,” said the night man,
“We are programmed to receive.
You can check out any time you like,
But you can never leave! “
If you were to trust one of these startup data lake companies with all your data across all your operational silos, what happens if you decide to leave or if the company goes out of business? And can data lake technology, as advertised, solve complex requirements of sustainability ESG…
