Company
Date Published
Author
Kenten Danas Senior
Word count
1977
Language
English
Hacker News points
None

Summary

Apache Airflow, originally developed at Airbnb in 2014, has evolved from orchestrating ETL pipelines to becoming the industry standard for complex data workflows, encompassing machine learning, infrastructure management, and analytics. Despite major advancements, outdated misconceptions persist, such as the unreliability of its scheduler, difficulty in scaling, data processing limitations, and lack of pipeline versioning. The release of Airflow 3.0 addressed these concerns with features like high availability, dynamic task mapping, remote execution capabilities, and native DAG versioning. While early versions faced challenges, modern Airflow offers a scalable and flexible architecture capable of handling dynamic, high-throughput workflows. The platform's growth is supported by managed services like Astro, which simplify operational overhead and enhance reliability. The series aims to dispel myths and highlight Airflow's capabilities beyond traditional ETL tasks, showcasing its relevance for machine learning, AI, and event-driven orchestration.