The Definitive Guide to the Data Lakehouse: Must-Have Characteristics and Components
The data lakehouse has captured the hopes of modern enterprises that seek to combine the best of the data warehouse with the best of the data lake. Like a data warehouse, it transforms and queries data at high speed. Like a data lake, it consolidates multi-structured data in flexible object stores. Common use cases include data mesh support, a unified access layer for analytics, data warehouse consolidation, data modernization for the hybrid cloud, departmental lakehouses, and support for FinOps programs.
Common use cases include data mesh support, a unified access layer for analytics, data warehouse consolidation, data modernization for the hybrid cloud, departmental lakehouses, and support for FinOps programs.
This report explores use cases and case studies, then defines the must-have characteristics of the data lakehouse: unified, simple, accessible, fast, economic, governed, and open. It also examines the architectural layers of the data lakehouse environment, including the object store, a data layer, processing layer, semantic layer, communication layer, and client layer. Data teams that select the right elements for their environments and establish the right points of integration can modernize their data architecture for analytics and BI.
Take the following steps to build and execute the right strategy to modernize your open data stack.
- Prioritize your business use cases. Define the highest priority business use cases for your data lakehouse. Identify which of these can get you a “quick win,” and prioritize the architectural characteristics required to support them: unified, simple, accessible, high performance, economic, governed, or open.
- Tackle your first project. Plan and execute the first project to support your highest priority use case(s). Assemble the right stakeholders, then create and implement a roadmap for incrementally changing your environment.
- Expand your lakehouse. When you demonstrate business value with your first project, this “quick win”can give you the budget, executive support, and architectural platform to expand. Your goal is to chalk up a sequence of incremental, achievable projects that each demonstrate the ROI of your lakehouse.