MB-260: Determine whether to use the managed data lake or an organization’s data lake

When you first set up Customer Insights – Data you have to select if you want to use the managed data lake or the your own organization’s data lake.

To determine whether to use the managed data lake or an organization’s data lake, we first need to know the difference between the two and what your company needs.

For most companies, the managed data late will be the best option. This is when Microsoft manage the data lake and everything is ready for you to use. This is also the recommended solution unless you have specific requirements to store data in your own storage account.

If you do want to control the data storage in your own organization’s data lake, you can select Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2. This lets you store data in your Azure Data Lake Storage account. The data lake has to be in the same region as CI-D, has to be Gen 2, have hierarchical namespacing enabled, and the admin setting up the CI-D environment needs the Storage Blob Data Contributor or Storage Blob Data Owner role on the storage account or the customerinsights container.

Once this is set up you can use your own company’s data lake.

If you don’t know your way around Azure Date Lake Storage Gen2 or don’t have anyone who knows a lot on how to manage it in your company, you should stick with the managed data lake and be safe.