Data is changing everything. Many industries today are being fundamentally transformed through the accumulation and analysis of large quantities of data, stored in diversified but flexible repositories known as data lakes. Whether your company has just begun to think about big data or has already initiated a strategy for handling it, this practical ebook shows you how to plan a successful data lake migration. You’ll learn the value of data lakes, their structure, and the problems they attempt to solve. Using Zaloni’s data lake maturity model, you’ll then explore your organization’s readiness for putting a data lake into action. Do you have the tools and data architectures to support big data analysis? Are your people and processes prepared? The data lake maturity model will help you rate your organization’s readiness. This report includes: The structure and purpose of a data lake Descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics Data lake curation, self-service, and the use of data lake zones How to rate your organization using the data lake maturity model A complete checklist to help you determine your strategic path forward

One viable option for organizations looking to harness massive amounts of data is the data lake, a single repository for storing all the raw data, both structured and unstructured, that floods into the company. But that isn’t the end of the story. The key to making a data lake work is data governance, using metadata to provide valuable context through tagging and cataloging. This practical report examines why metadata is essential for managing, migrating, accessing, and deploying any big data solution. Authors Federico Castanedo and Scott Gidley dive into the specifics of analyzing metadata for keeping track of your data—where it comes from, where it’s located, and how it’s being used—so you can provide safeguards and reduce risk. In the process, you’ll learn about methods for automating metadata capture. This report also explains the main features of a data lake architecture, and discusses the pros and cons of several data lake management solutions that support metadata. These solutions include: Traditional data integration/management vendors such as the IBM Research Accelerated Discovery Lab Tooling from open source projects, including Teradata Kylo and Informatica Startups such as Trifacta and Zaloni that provide best of breed technology