Orchestration

What orchestration is

Orchestration is the coordinated management of multiple tasks, services, or systems so they execute in the correct order, with proper dependencies, error handling, and scalability as part of a complete workflow.

Simple explanation

Orchestration defines:

• What runs
• When it runs
• In what order it runs
• How failures are handled
• What happens next

Core characteristics

• Workflow coordination – sequencing, branching, and dependencies
• Automation – tasks execute without manual intervention
• State management – tracks progress, success, and failure
• Error handling – retries, rollbacks, alerts
• Scalability – parallel execution and dynamic resource usage

Orchestration vs automation

• Automation executes a single task automatically
• Orchestration coordinates many automated tasks into a full process

Where orchestration is used

Software and microservices

• Controls service startup and shutdown order
• Manages dependencies between services
• Handles scaling and health monitoring

Data engineering

• Coordinates ETL and ELT pipelines
• Ensures downstream jobs wait for upstream data
• Manages retries, backfills, and failure recovery

Infrastructure and cloud

• Provisions resources in the correct sequence
• Scales systems based on demand
• Ensures fault tolerance and resilience

Business processes

• Coordinates approvals and notifications
• Enforces business rules across systems
• Tracks end-to-end process status

Example workflow

1. Wait for source data to arrive
2. Validate the data
3. Transform the data
4. Load the data into a target system
5. Trigger downstream processes or reports
6. Retry or alert if any step fails

One-sentence definition

Orchestration is the intelligent coordination of multiple automated tasks into a reliable, ordered, and scalable workflow.