What is the primary function of AWS Step Functions?

AWS Step Functions is primarily designed for serverless orchestration of workflows. It enables users to coordinate multiple AWS services into serverless workflows, allowing for the automation of complex processes. Step Functions allows developers to define workflows as state machines, where they can specify the steps that need to be taken, the order in which they should occur, error handling, and retry logic.

This orchestration service provides a visual representation of the workflow, making it easier to understand and manage the flow of data and tasks between services like AWS Lambda, AWS Batch, and others. Additionally, Step Functions manage the state of each step, allowing developers to focus on their application logic without worrying about the underlying infrastructure.

Data storage and retrieval, database provisioning, and network management, while essential components of cloud architectures, are not the primary focus of AWS Step Functions. These functions relate to different AWS services that specialize in handling storage (like Amazon S3 or DynamoDB), databases (like Amazon RDS), or networking (like Amazon VPC).