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July 16, 2019

Apollo Data Graph Platform Adds Managed Federation to Power GraphQL Across the Entire Organization

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, July 16th, 2019 – Apollo, the pioneer in the use of GraphQL API technologies for modern application development, today announced a major update to the Apollo Data Graph Platform that enables teams to operate a single shared data graph for the organization, dramatically improving application delivery and user experience.

Recently, Apollo introduced open source Federation technology that lets teams compose any number of separate GraphQL services into a single graph. Now, Apollo is announcing the managed federation tooling that provides analytics, CI, and collaboration workflows necessary for teams to work together efficiently on distributed graphs.

“A data graph brings extraordinary benefits to how fast organizations can build high quality apps with a rich data-driven experience.” said Matt DeBergalis, CTO and co-founder of Apollo. “The challenge is operating this new layer without introducing a monolith that creates development chokepoints and central points of failure. That’s why we’re introducing managed federation; the tooling and infrastructure to implement and manage a data graph that’s operated by many different teams working together.”

The Apollo Data Graph Platform with managed federation

Apollo’s Data Graph Platform is a comprehensive set of tools and libraries for implementing a data graph layer on top of an organization’s APIs and services. Already in use at companies such as Expedia, Airbnb, and SurveyMonkey, Apollo’s platform includes a GraphQL client and server as well as a cloud-based manager for controlling and monitoring the shared graph.

Releasing Apollo federation to open source was the first step, bringing forth an architecture that composes multiple GraphQL services into a single graph. This allows teams to implement a shared data graph as a set of loosely coupled, separately maintained GraphQL services. Teams can build and maintain their portion of the overall graph in isolation, with flexibility to develop independently and operate on their own release cycles.

Now, with Apollo managed federation, organizations have the tooling to operate a federated data graph safely and with minimal overhead. Managed federation works on top of Apollo OSS federation and includes:

  • Federated service checks – keeps a GraphQL API available for the apps that rely on it, even as the data graph evolves over time. Validation and service checks wire into CI systems so that every team can independently and safely update their piece of the graph.
  • Managed service deployments – coordinates changes to a shared, distributed graph without having to align across multiple teams, build new CI/CD processes, or manually re-deploy the GraphQL server to fetch the latest changes.
  • Comprehensive graph analytics – provides key insights about how to improve, maintain, and support services in a federated environment with detailed information about what services are live in production and how queries interact across these services.

Apollo’s Data Graph Platform enables organizations to adopt GraphQL with confidence, backed by a high availability production SLA and expert 24/7 support. Now, with managed federation, organizations also have the tools needed to adopt the latest evolution in GraphQL. Managed federation is available with Apollo’s Team and Enterprise plans.

About Apollo

Apollo, the most widespread implementation of GraphQL, is focused on making application development easier, better, and faster. Apollo builds open source tools and commercial services used by thousands of developers in production and has cultivated a strong community around GraphQL. With the Apollo Data Graph Platform, customers like Expedia, Airbnb, Audi, SurveyMonkey, and others rapidly implement GraphQL, consistent with industry best practices, providing their customers with the high-quality, personalized digital experiences they expect—on all of their devices. Based in San Francisco, Apollo is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Matrix Partners, and Trinity Ventures.


Source: Apollo

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