A data platform team needs a workflow that runs a validation step, branches to a repair path or a publish path depending on the result, and offers a graphical view of each run's history. Which service fits?
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B
Cloud Composer is a managed Apache Airflow service. Airflow workflows are defined as DAGs, and they support conditional branching through operators such as the branch operator, along with retries and explicit dependencies between tasks. The Airflow web interface shows the state and history of each run. Cloud Scheduler only triggers jobs on a schedule without managing dependencies, Cloud Tasks dispatches individual asynchronous requests, and Pub/Sub moves messages rather than orchestrating ordered steps.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Cloud Scheduler fires jobs at fixed times and has no concept of a branch based on a prior step's result or a visual history of multi-step runs.
- C. Cloud Tasks is a queue for dispatching work to handlers. It is not an orchestrator, so conditional routing and run-history views are not built in.
- D. Pub/Sub delivers messages between publishers and subscribers. Using delays to sequence stages gives no branching logic and no workflow-level monitoring.