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Peter Kim Frank
Peter Kim Frank

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ELI5: Data Lake vs. Data Warehouse vs. Data Pond etc.

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These terms can be somewhat jargon-y and inter-mixed. How would you explain the nuance between a Data Lake vs. Data Warehouse vs. Data Pond vs. any other common terms in this arena to a 5 year old?

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Matt Ellen

Not an answer: Who ever came up with the metaphor of lake and pond for data storage is very bad at coming up with metaphors. You don't throw something into a lake to store it. "Our data lake is like lake Michigan!" "Dangerous in winter, with a surprising number of shipwrecks?" Data Pond is even worse. Not big enough to store anything useful is the first thing that comes to mind.

Anyway. I'll bookmark this to find our their real meaning!