The Customer Data Platform Institute defines a CDP as “packaged software the builds a unified, persistent customer database that is accessible to other systems.” That definition implies a number of specific capabilities, encapsulated in the Institute’s RealCDP certification. But the term Customer Data Platform is often understood more loosely to describe any system that delivers unified, actionable customer profiles.

In particular, data lakes and warehouses have been designed as analytical systems. Data lakes give analysts easy access to raw data, without requiring them to access the original source systems directly. Data warehouses contain carefully cleaned and formatted data for predefined analytical tasks such as business performance measurement and financial reporting.

Download the guide to learn how a CDP can activate unified customer profiles with application systems.