AWS Step Functions vs Glue Workflow: Choosing the Right ETL Orchestration Strategy

Selecting the appropriate workflow orchestration tool is a critical architectural decision when building data pipelines on AWS. While AWS Step Functions offers broad multi-service integration and flexible control flows, AWS Glue Workflow provides specialized optimization for Glue-centric workloads. Understanding their distinct strengths and trade-offs enables teams to align their tool choice with specific requirements around flexibility, cost, and operational overhead.