A data lake is a central location that stores all the company's raw data in its original format, allowing for flexibility and scalability. It serves as a catch-all repository for various types of data, including unstructured content like images, videos, and JSON files. In contrast, a data warehouse is a separate database that takes the unstructured data from the lake and transforms it into a single source of clean, formatted, and organized data with a structured schema. The main difference between the two lies in their approach to handling data: data lakes store raw data, while data warehouses process and organize the data for better analytics and decision-making. Data warehouses are typically more user-friendly and suitable for less technical users, offering advantages like reduced storage costs and improved query performance.