Apache Airflow is an open-source platform for orchestrating and automating workflows, particularly in data engineering and machine learning pipelines.
Key Characteristics of Apache Airflow:
- DAG-Based: Uses Directed Acyclic Graphs to define task dependencies.
- Extensibility: Supports plugins and custom operators for diverse needs.
- Monitoring and Logging: Tracks workflow execution for debugging and optimization.
Applications:
- ETL Processes: Extracting, transforming, and loading data into databases.
- Data Pipelines: Automating tasks like data preprocessing or feature engineering.
- AI Model Training: Scheduling and monitoring model training jobs.
Example:
An Airflow pipeline fetches data from APIs, preprocesses it, and trains an ML model nightly to update a recommender system.
