Google Cloud's stream and batch data processing service. Like having a factory assembly line that can process both steady streams of data and large batches efficiently.
A ride-sharing company uses Dataflow to process real-time location data from millions of drivers and passengers.
Cloud Dataflow is a managed Apache Beam runner for stream and batch processing. Closest equivalents are AWS Glue (serverless ETL with streaming via Glue Streaming), Azure Data Factory (orchestration plus data flows; streaming typically uses Azure Stream Analytics), and OCI Data Flow (managed Apache Spark). None are a perfect 1:1 match because Dataflow uniquely centers on Apache Beam for unified batch+stream pipelines.