Data Lake vs Data Warehouse vs Lakehouse
By Karthick Selvam · Published
Three architectures for storing analytical data.
Warehouse
Structured, modelled data optimised for SQL analytics and BI.
Lake
Low-cost object storage holding raw data in any format. Flexible, but it can become a "swamp" without governance.
Lakehouse
Open table formats such as Delta Lake, Apache Iceberg or Apache Hudi add ACID transactions, schema enforcement and time travel on top of lake storage.
Frequently asked questions
Which is best?
It depends on workloads; many organisations combine approaches.
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- Databricks & Lakehouse Engineering
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