AWS Step Functions has evolved from a simple state machine orchestrator into the backbone of modern serverless data engineering. As organizations move away from brittle, monolithic scripts toward event-driven architectures, Step Functions provides the reliability, observability, and scalability required for complex ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes and data workflows.
However, building a “working” pipeline is different from building a “production-grade” pipeline. In this guide, we will explore industry-standard best practices for building robust serverless data pipelines, focusing on performance, cost efficiency, and maintainability.