GraphQL Company Apollo today announced the launch of GraphOS, a new end-to-end platform intended to help businesses build, connect and scale what the company calls “supergraphs.” For Apollo, these supergraphs have been a major focus of late. The basic idea here is to enable companies to integrate data from a wide variety of sources into a single super graph that developers can then easily use in their applications.
With GraphOS, the company is now making it easier for enterprises to get started with these supergraphs by providing them with a service that removes the complexity of setting up the necessary infrastructure to build and manage these graphs.
“GraphOS delivers on the fundamental promise of the supergraph: letting developers easily grab everything they need to build great apps and experiences, without writing code for everything they need,” said Apollo CEO and co-founder Geoff Schmidt . “When someone connects to the Internet, they open a browser and start typing. This should be the same experience developers have as they access the data and services they need to build.”
The company, which Series D round of $130 million last year, states the new service will give users the ability to easily connect all their data and fast, unified query execution as part of the managed service. Apollo also emphasizes that developers still get all the CI/CD, observation, and collaboration tools needed to work with their charts.
It’s worth noting that Apollo will offer both cloud-hosted and self-hosted routing options, with access control and SOC 2 Type II compliance controlled by Doyensec.
Looking ahead, Apollo also plans to expand on this concept by soon allowing users to link supergraphs outside of their corporate networks to include third-party APIs. Apollo states that GraphOS will be the foundation for what it calls a “global supergraph” that could, over time, become a data access marketplace, allowing developers to “get everything they need at once.” That’s a lofty goal, but you can’t accuse Apollo of thinking too small.
“The supergraph and GraphOS are built to meet the needs of application developers, to give them the flexibility and resources they need to build great experiences without the complexity and friction that constantly get in the way,” said Schmidt. “We’ve seen the industry agree that the supergraph meets those needs. What started as an open source specification in GraphQL has grown into a thriving ecosystem and global developer movement centered around the supergraph.”
