Ab Initio alternative — Ab Initio vs Skippr

Ab Initio is a graph engine. The Co>Operating System runs those graphs in parallel on many CPUs, across Unix, Linux, Windows, Hadoop, containers, and z/OS. You draw them in the Graphical Development Environment. Express>It lets a business user fill in rules on top (Business Rules Environment, Easy>Data). Conduct>It schedules. Control>Center watches. The Enterprise Meta>Environment versions graphs, schemas, and lineage. Continuous>Flows is the real-time SKU: Kafka, MQ, Kinesis, microservices, in-memory Active>Data, and Ab Initio's checkpointing. Query>It runs SQL over files on S3, HDFS, or Ab Initio's ICFF, and can federate into Snowflake, Teradata, Db2, or Oracle. CDC is not the core graph. Community write-ups put it on Continuous>Flows, or on a "CDC Golden Gate" component that needs a GoldenGate estate. Ab Initio does not publish a price list. Official copy says usage-based models or enterprise agreements. AWS Marketplace lists a 1.01 USD/month placeholder that still requires Ab Initio to accept the order. There is no Iceberg ∪ WAL here.

Skippr is an open Streamhouse you run as one Rust binary. Write skippr.yml (or the same thing in Python), discover, sync. You query live state over Iceberg ∪ WAL, and the history is ordinary Iceberg in your bucket. No GDE. ELT into a warehouse is one path, not the product.

Feature	Skippr	Ab Initio
Deploy	Single Rust binary, your VPC or on-prem	Co>Operating System plus GDE, EME, and the SKUs you licensed
Schema	In-stream evolution, sibling columns	Graph metadata in EME
Storage	Open Iceberg on Parquet you own	Files, ICFF, or the database the graph wrote
CDC	Log-based; fails closed if the dest cannot honour	Continuous>Flows, or GoldenGate inside a graph
Query	skipprd query on Iceberg ∪ WAL; history in any Iceberg engine	Query>It on files you already landed. Not Iceberg ∪ WAL
Pricing	Free self-hosted engine	Quote. No public list. Marketplace is a placeholder.

Talk through skipprd now

Paul Bot knows the docs. Google Meet as soon as you join, any time of day.

Chat now →

Any time · 20 minutes · Google Meet now

What Ab Initio is good at

A parallel graph that already survives z/OS and a Linux farm in one portable application. Checkpointing on Continuous>Flows is why telco and bank batch windows still trust it. EME lineage that walks every component is a real catalog if that is what you bought. If the job is "run the graph we staffed a centre of excellence for," that is a real product.

Where the job is wider

Ab Initio is a graph platform. It is not a Streamhouse. There is no Iceberg ∪ WAL. There is no skipprd query on in-flight rows. Query>It reads files the graph already wrote.

SKU math is the ops. Co>Op, GDE, Express>It, Conduct>It, Continuous>Flows, EME, and Query>It are separate products on the public list. Continuous>Flows is what you add when the graph has to stay up. CDC through GoldenGate is a second vendor. The license is a conversation with Ab Initio, not a page you can check.

Skippr will not run a Co>Op graph. Skippr also will not replace EME. If the job is "keep the graph on z/OS," Ab Initio is the narrower tool. If the job is live SQL on Iceberg you run, Ab Initio was never that.

Getting started

Install skipprd from the install guide, or pip install skippr. The three tabs write the same skippr.yml. Then discover, sync, and query.

YAML

skippr:
  workspace: analytics
  skipprd_el_storage_mode: local

pipelines:
  orders:
    data_source: data_sources.app_db
    data_sink: data_sinks.lake

data_sources:
  app_db:
    Postgres:
      host: db.internal
      user: skippr_reader
      password: ${APP_DB_PASSWORD}
      database: app
      tables: [orders, customers]
      cdc_mode: snapshot_then_cdc

data_sinks:
  lake:
    AthenaIceberg:
      warehouse: s3://my-iceberg-warehouse/
      glue_database_name: analytics
      athena_workgroup_name: primary
      athena_results_s3_bucket: my-athena-results
      region: us-east-1
    schema_sink: schema_sinks.lake_schema

schema_sinks:
  lake_schema:
    AthenaIceberg:
      warehouse: s3://my-iceberg-warehouse/
      glue_database_name: analytics
      athena_workgroup_name: primary
      athena_results_s3_bucket: my-athena-results
      region: us-east-1

CLI

skipprd --workspace analytics --storage-mode local connect data-source postgres \
  --pipeline orders \
  --name app_db \
  --host db.internal \
  --user skippr_reader \
  --password '${APP_DB_PASSWORD}' \
  --database app \
  --tables orders \
  --tables customers \
  --cdc-mode snapshot_then_cdc

skipprd connect data-sink athenaiceberg \
  --pipeline orders \
  --name lake \
  --warehouse s3://my-iceberg-warehouse/ \
  --glue-database-name analytics \
  --athena-workgroup-name primary \
  --athena-results-s3-bucket my-athena-results \
  --region us-east-1

skipprd connect schema-sink athenaiceberg \
  --pipeline orders \
  --name lake_schema

Python

from skippr import (
    Config,
    DataSinkAthenaIceberg,
    DataSourcePostgres,
    DataSourcePostgresSourceCdcMode,
    EnvRef,
    LocalStorage,
    Pipeline,
)

cfg = Config().workspace("analytics").storage(LocalStorage())

app_db = cfg.data_source(
    "app_db",
    DataSourcePostgres(
        host="db.internal",
        user="skippr_reader",
        password=EnvRef("APP_DB_PASSWORD"),
        database="app",
        tables=["orders", "customers"],
        cdc_mode=DataSourcePostgresSourceCdcMode.SNAPSHOTTHENCDC,
    ),
)

lake = cfg.data_sink(
    "lake",
    DataSinkAthenaIceberg(
        warehouse="s3://my-iceberg-warehouse/",
        glue_database_name="analytics",
        athena_workgroup_name="primary",
        athena_results_s3_bucket="my-athena-results",
        region="us-east-1",
    ),
    schema_sink="lake_schema",
)

cfg.pipeline("orders", Pipeline(data_source=app_db, data_sink=lake))
cfg.save("skippr.yml")

export APP_DB_PASSWORD='your-postgres-password'
skipprd discover --pipeline orders
skipprd sync --pipeline orders --once
skipprd query "SELECT count(*) FROM analytics.orders"

Which to choose

Choose Ab Initio if you already run Co>Operating System graphs (including z/OS), and files or a warehouse after the graph are enough.

Choose Skippr if you want one binary, live SQL, and Iceberg files that stay yours. Skippr will not run a Co>Op graph.

Install from Install. Connector and query reference live in Developer Docs. For optional onboarding in your VPC, Enterprise Jumpstart or Contact.