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Astronomer's State of Airflow Report 2025: A Comprehensive Overview

Astronomer, the company behind Astro, renowned as the leading data orchestration and observability platform powered by Apache Airflow®, has recently released its State of Airflow Report 2025. This report is a culmination of insights gathered from over 5,000 data professionals, making it the most extensive data engineering survey conducted to date. The findings underscore the growing necessity of data orchestration in enhancing enterprise operations, particularly in areas from advanced analytics to external-facing data products and AI processes.

A Standard for Data Orchestration

Apache Airflow has firmly established itself as a benchmark in the industry for data orchestration, and the findings from the report are a testament to its accelerating growth and widespread adoption. The data collected from late 2024 reveals several key metrics that highlight this trend:

• - Popularity Surge: Airflow achieved over 31 million downloads in November 2024, a staggering rise from 888,000 downloads just four years prior in November 2020. This growth is indicative of Airflow's increasing traction, with 2024 alone accounting for more downloads than all its previous years combined.

• - Robust Contributor Community: The Airflow community has significantly expanded, boasting over 3,000 contributors compared to 1,300 just a few years back. This surge in contributors positions Airflow as the leader among all open-source projects affiliated with the Apache Software Foundation.

• - Pull Request Activity: In November 2024, Airflow experienced over 29,000 pull requests, highlighting active community engagement and ongoing development compared to 10,000+ in November 2020.

• - Enterprise Adoption Gains: More than 77,000 organizations were utilizing Airflow by November 2024, a remarkable increase from just 25,000+ in 2020. This reflects Airflow's fundamental role in modern enterprise infrastructures.

Data Orchestration as a Strategic Necessity

As outlined by CEO Andy Byron, the report emphasizes that effective data utilization is becoming a competitive advantage across industries. Byron notes that data orchestration has transitioned from a secondary business requirement to a primary strategic imperative, essential for operationalizing data and fueling initiatives like advanced analytics and AI-driven innovations. With over 90% of data professionals indicating Airflow's critical position within their businesses, it's evident that orchestration has become foundational.

The report identifies several notable trends:

1. Multi-Cloud Data Platform Strategies

Organizations are increasingly adopting multi-solution strategies rather than committing to a single cloud provider. Airflow is positioned as the essential connective tool across a diverse tech landscape, with major platforms like Snowflake, Databricks, and Google Cloud's BigQuery enjoying nearly equal levels of adoption.

2. Airflow's Business-Critical Nature

According to the survey, Airflow is not just favored among data teams, with a recommendation rate surpassing 90%, but it also serves as a core element in mission-critical operations for many leading enterprises, particularly those with large employee bases.

3. Expansion Beyond Analytics

While historically recognized for its effectiveness in ETL and ELT operations, Airflow is now evolving into a crucial platform for deploying machine learning models and generative AI initiatives—significantly, over 85% of users anticipate an uptick in revenue-generating solutions constructed with Airflow.

4. The Role of Orchestration in AI Deployment

As organizations grapple with maximizing returns on AI investments, maturing Airflow practices and robust data orchestration strategies are vital for successful implementation of AI and MLOps solutions. Data from Astornomer's users reveals that a significant portion leverage Airflow for machine learning purposes.

Conclusion

The State of Airflow Report 2025 provides rich insights into the evolving role of data teams, the adoption of diverse technology stacks by large enterprises, and pivotal trends surrounding data orchestration. Companies keen on maximizing utility from their data are advised to delve deeper into these findings. For those interested in exploring this further, the full report is available for download, and further resources can be accessed through Astronomer's platforms.

Resources

• - Complete State of Airflow Report 2025
• - Read More on Our Blog
• - Register for Astronomer's Webinar
• - Try Astro with a Free Trial

Astronomer empowers data teams to augment their software, analytics, and AI capabilities through the reliable services offered by Astro, which is trusted by some of the world's leading enterprises.