“Data lakes” are the latest technology buzzword for data management, storage, and analysis. We’ll break down and demystify the concept in this article and help you figure out what a data lake is and why you need one for your gaming business.
Data lakes were first introduced in the early 2010s as a way to store and manage large amounts of structured and unstructured data. The approach was seen as an alternative to traditional data warehousing, which required data to be transformed and cleansed before being stored and analysed.
The digital age has led to companies generating large amounts of data, which fueled the emergence of data lakes. The data came from social media, IoT devices, and mobile apps and was often unstructured and hard to process.
Data lakes and data warehouses were popular solutions for companies wanting to analyse and store the data because these solutions made the process easy for non-technical people. Gaming companies also started to catch on to understand the value of the data science behind data lakes. They started to invest in giving their business users access to that data.
What is a data lake?
Data lakes have become an increasingly popular solution for gaming companies looking to gain insights from their data. The concept of a data lake is simple: it is a centralised repository that allows organisations to store all their structured and unstructured data at any scale.
Data lakes are designed to handle big data and provide a scalable and cost-effective way to store, process and analyse large volumes of data from various sources such as social media, IoT devices, and mobile apps. The data stored in a data lake can be used for various business intelligence and analytics use cases, including data warehousing, machine learning models, and real-time analytics.
But what are the benefits that data lakes offer to gaming companies specifically?
Benefits of using data lakes
First and foremost, data lakes allow gaming companies to store and process all of their data in one place. This includes different types of data from a variety of sources, such as player logs, in-game purchases, streaming data and even social media interactions.
Having this data in one place makes it much easier for gaming companies to gain insights and make data-driven decisions to improve player retention. This allows for more efficient and accurate analysis, as employees can easily access data as it is stored in a consistent format.
Moreover, tools like TRU Insight will plug into payment data to give your employees actionable monthly payment insights to better understand how they transact with your gaming customers.
Another benefit of data lakes is the ability to scale easily. As gaming companies grow, they often need to store and process more data. With a data lake, adding more storage and processing power is easy, as it is designed to handle large amounts of data. This allows gaming companies to keep up with the growth of their data and continue to gain insights from it.
Data lakes also offer cost savings for gaming companies. Traditional data warehousing solutions can be expensive and require a significant upfront investment. Data lakes, on the other hand, are often built on low-cost commodity hardware and can be easily scaled as needed. This allows gaming companies to save money on their data storage and processing costs.
In addition, data lakes enable gaming companies to store data in its raw form, meaning it can be used for both current and future use cases. This means that the data can be used for real-time analytics but also can be kept for historical reference or future analysis. This allows gaming companies to identify trends and patterns over time and gives visibility into the player’s journey, which can be used to improve the gaming experience.
Data lakes also enable gaming companies to integrate various data sources, such as social media data, into their analytics pipeline. This allows gaming companies to gain a complete picture of their players, investigate and understand player behaviours and experiences, and make better decisions to improve the gaming experience and increase player engagement.
Lastly, data lakes allow gaming companies to share data across different teams and departments, such as marketing and development. This allows for more collaboration and the ability to make data-driven decisions across the organisation and track the most important KPIs on performance, engagement, and revenue.
Final thoughts and next steps
In conclusion, data lakes offer several benefits for gaming companies. From storing and processing all their data in one place to easily analysing large amounts of data, data lakes allow gaming companies to gain insights and make data-driven decisions.
They also offer cost savings and the ability to store data for future use cases and share it across different teams and departments. With the increasing importance of data in the gaming industry, data lakes are becoming an essential tool for gaming companies looking to gain a competitive edge.
Want to learn more about optimising your growth and improving your player experience? Head over to our dedicated Gaming Solutions page.
