Mihir, Thank you for taking the time to bring this up!
A lot of the time and energy we spend on the Airflow dev list focuses on large enterprise use cases for running Airflow at scale. Your motivation as expressed to me earlier today was to use Airflow for small use cases at NGOs that need orchestration for their data solutions. Their data needs are small yet real, and computing affordability is a key requirement. As an open source project, we absolutely want to meet the needs of this audience as well, where feasible. The smaller, lightweight execution environment is something that Ephraim and Ash are already looking at, but with a different lens, so I will make sure to flag this to them as well. Best regards, Vikram On Wed, Nov 4, 2026 at 3:24 PM Mihir Samant <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Team, > > During the recent Apache Airflow Reconnect, I had a brief chat with Vikram > about an idea to make Airflow more accessible for smaller organizations. > > *The Core Idea:* > > Develop a lightweight, streamlined version of Apache Airflow tailored for > teams and non-profits with modest data orchestration needs. Many small > organizations don't require heavy AI/ML workflows or the infrastructure > complexity of Airflow 3.x. > > *Key Focus Areas:* > > - > > *Simplified Scope:* Focus purely on core, standard data processing and > pipeline orchestration. > - > > *Easier Deployment:* Offer a fast, non-Docker installation pathway for > environments with limited infrastructure or system resources. > > I believe a lean Airflow profile could expand our adoption across small > businesses and community organizations that currently find the full > footprint overwhelming. > > Huge thanks to Vikram for taking the time to listen and discuss this! I’d > love to hear the team's thoughts on whether this aligns with any upcoming > community or roadmap discussions. > > Best, > > > *Mihir Samant**519-982-8632 <(519)%20982-8632> <(519)%20982-8632>* >
