Centralized repository that stores all types of raw data at any scale. Like a massive digital reservoir that holds data in its original form until you need to analyze it.
Companies dump sensor data, logs, images, and documents into a data lake, then use analytics tools to find patterns and insights when needed.
A data lake is typically built on low-cost object storage. AWS commonly uses S3 as the storage layer with Lake Formation/Glue for governance and cataloging; Azure uses ADLS Gen2; GCP uses Cloud Storage with Dataplex/BigLake for governance; OCI uses Object Storage with Data Catalog for metadata.