A data lake is a single repository (Hadoop or another NoSQL platform) that accesses and stores all types of data, i.e. structured or unstructured, enabling authorized users to quickly access data from one place. A data lake also captures changes to data. It should be a part of an enterprise data storage strategy for getting the most value from your organization’s data. Nowadays, data lakes consist of machine-generated logs and sensor data, raw customer data collected from website clicks, social media, collections of documents such as e-mail and customer files, and geo-location traces. To know more about data lakes & its benefits, follow:  http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/it-solutions/what-a-data-lake-isand-what-it-should-do-69978