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Serious question: How does "Durable Execution" differ from "Atomic Transaction"? At most, it seems that DE refers to more concrete details around implementing Atomic Transactions.

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It depends on what exactly you mean by "Atomic Transaction". If you are referring to database transactions, then DE is not that. But DE helps you implement potentially long-running multi-step business transactions, a.k.a. workflows, sometimes spanning over days or weeks. Oftentimes, these transactions are atomic, but don't satisfy the isolation requirement of ACID transactions, i.e. partial outcomes of in-flight flows may be visible to external observers.

Maybe its about tools for inspecting the trace of a running atomic transaction?

Not really sure because "Lately, there has been a lot of excitement around Durable Execution (DE) engines" is also news to me, and AFAICT it seems to be yet-another-reinvention CS is famous for.

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