GraphQL company Apollo today announced the launch of GraphOS, a new way to build, connect and connect end-to-end businesses that the company calls “SuperGraph.” For Apollo, these supergraphs have become a major focus recently. The basic idea here is to allow businesses to combine data from different sources into a single supergraph that developers can then easily use in their applications.
With GraphOS, the company is making it easier for enterprises to get started with these supergraphs by providing a service that takes away the complexity of deploying the infrastructure necessary to build and manage these graphs.
“GraphOS delivers on the fundamental promise of SuperGraph: allowing developers to easily capture everything they need to build great apps and experiences without writing code for everything they need,” said Geoff Schmidt, Apollo CEO and founder. “When a person connects to the Internet, they open a browser and start typing. This should be the same experience when developers get the data and services they need to build.”
The company, which raised a $130 million Series D round last year, argues that the new service is part of a managed service that allows users to easily connect all their data and provide faster, unified query execution. Apollo emphasized that developers still need all CI/CD, observability, and collaboration tools to work with their graphs.
It’s important to note that Apollo offers both cloud-hosted and self-hosted routing options, access controls and SOC 2 Type II compliance, audited by DoiSec.
Looking ahead, Apollo plans to expand this concept by soon allowing users to integrate third-party APIs beyond their corporate networks. Apollo argues that GraphOS will provide the basis for what it calls a “global supergraph” that could eventually become a data access marketplace, allowing developers to “query anything they need in one operation.” That’s a lofty goal, but you can’t accuse Apollo of being too small.
“SuperGraph and GraphOS were built to address the needs of application developers, giving them the flexibility and resources to build amazing experiences without the ever-obstructive complexity and friction,” said Schmidt. We have seen industry consensus that Supergraph meets those needs. What started as an open source specification in GraphQL, has evolved into a thriving ecosystem and global developer movement around SuperGraph.
