What is Customer Data Platform (CDP)?
A customer data platform collects customer data from many sources, unifies it into profiles, and makes those profiles available to other marketing and analytics systems.
Why does Customer Data Platform (CDP) matter for marketers?
Personalization, measurement and agents all depend on trustworthy customer profiles and on correct consent records.
Where does Customer Data Platform (CDP) stand today?
In 2026 two launches moved the CDP onto the customer's own lakehouse: Databricks CustomerLake (private preview, June) and Zeotap Open CDP (September). Salesforce says its marketing agents are built on its CDP.
Common use cases
- Unifying customer profiles
- Building audiences
- Passing consented data to ad and email tools
A customer data platform collects customer data from many sources, unifies it into profiles, and makes those profiles available to other marketing and analytics systems.