Enhance customer experiences with Apollo GraphOS


<p class="wp-block-paragraph">GraphQL is in Gartner’s Trough of Disillusionment in the <a href="https://www.apollographql.com/resources/gartner-hype-cycle-for-apis-2026">2026 Gartner® Hype Cycle™ for APIs</a>. Good.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The trough is what happens when expectations set during the hype phase meet the reality of actual production requirements. People stop hyping and start asking the key questions: Does this thing work? Does it solve a problem we actually have? Can we operate it in production without making everyone miserable?</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Those are the right questions, and any proposed platform tech has to answer them.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="#graphql-adoption-vs-graphql-readiness" aria-hidden="true" class="aal_anchor" id="graphql-adoption-vs-graphql-readiness"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="aal_svg" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>GraphQL adoption vs. GraphQL “readiness”</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">With GraphQL in the trough, Gartner notes this observation:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Despite the potential, GraphQL adoption for AI and agentic workflows have not translated to increased adoption due to its limited penetration in key agentic use cases.”</p>
</blockquote>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">That strikes us as basically right. MCP and other agent-oriented protocols arrived with an obvious, legible connection to AI. GraphQL, like other mature technologies, is adapting. Most companies adopted it years earlier to solve the problems of the day: frontend development, service integration, data aggregation, and the general difficulty of getting a large organization’s systems to behave as if they belong to the same company.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">But we think the sequencing matters. Are agents causing companies to adopt GraphQL? There’s some early signal that they are. But a more immediately interesting question is whether companies that already adopted GraphQL are better prepared to put agents into production. The answer is an unequivocal “yes.” There is another interesting signal in the Gartner report. GraphQL is in the trough, but Gartner forecasts that it will reach the Plateau of Productivity in less than two years.  That’s sooner than MCP, gRPC, and AI Agent Communication Protocols. In our read, that tells us something about maturity. GraphQL is no longer new enough to receive credit for its potential. It has to earn credit for being useful. That is a healthier place for infrastructure technology to be.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">It helps that GraphQL is not a speculative protocol waiting for its first serious workload. It is a <a href="https://spec.graphql.org/">Linux Foundation-backed open standard</a> that has been used at enterprise scale for years. This matters when you are choosing infrastructure that could outlive several executive teams, architecture strategies, and AI hype cycles. Proprietary protocols can disappear when their owner’s priorities change. Open standards have a chance to compound.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In our view, Gartner’s own description of GraphQL makes this case more plainly. The report describes its capacity to serve as:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“A unified enterprise data model, decoupled from the underlying service implementations. This shared schema fosters a common understanding of business data across teams, streamlines integration efforts, and accelerates the delivery of new features and digital products. As GraphQL adoption grows, it also supports advanced use cases, such as enterprisewide orchestration and AI integration, further amplifying its business value.”</p>
</blockquote>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">You could remove “AI integration” from that paragraph and it would still describe why many organizations adopted GraphQL in the first place. Put it back in, though, and the connection becomes pretty obvious. Agents need to find data, understand how it relates, retrieve what they are allowed to retrieve, and take actions across systems. A governed graph does not solve the entire agent problem—nothing does—but it gives agents a coherent surface over systems that were not designed with agents in mind.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="#what-built-the-graph-first-looks-like-in-production" aria-hidden="true" class="aal_anchor" id="what-built-the-graph-first-looks-like-in-production"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="aal_svg" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>What &#8220;built the graph first&#8221; looks like in production</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">American Airlines is a useful example because its story does not begin with an LLM, but it ends with one.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Its core system of record is SABRE, which dates to the 1960s. Years before every software roadmap acquired an “agentic” section, the company built a federated graph spanning customer, loyalty, reservations, and check-in experiences across web, mobile, and kiosks. When its CEO later asked the organization to put AI agents into production on a 90-day delivery cycle, the company did not also have to invent a context layer from scratch. It had already done the foundational architecture work.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">As Senior Principal Architect Pragadeesh Prakasam recently explained at the <a href="https://www.apollographql.com/events/the-api-layer-is-the-agent-layer-whats-standing-between-your-ai-agents-and-produc">2026 AI Agent Conference</a>, the team placed <a href="https://www.apollographql.com/apollo-mcp-server">Apollo’s MCP Server</a> on top of the graph it already operated. <a href="https://www.apollographql.com/docs/graphos/platform/security/persisted-queries">Persisted queries</a> became the agents’ tool surface. Existing field-level security scopes applied to agent interactions. Authentication, governance, and observability were not exciting new items on an AI infrastructure backlog; they were capabilities the company already had.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“We could just focus on the experience,” Prakasam said. “Not on rebuilding the plumbing.”</p>
</blockquote>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This is the part we think gets lost when people compare adoption curves. GraphQL did not need to arrive wearing an AI costume to be useful for AI. American Airlines built a graph to solve one generation of software problems and discovered that the same investment helped with the next one. <a href="http://booking.com">Booking.com</a>, <a href="https://www.apollographql.com/customers/how-indeed-built-an-ai-hiring-assistant-in-9-months-with-apollo">Indeed</a>, and <a href="https://www.apollographql.com/newsroom/press-releases/apollo-expands-platform-to-power-the-agentic-future-at-graphql-summit-2025">Yahoo!</a> have followed a similar pattern: build a mature, governed graph, then give agents access to that foundation.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">So yes, Gartner is right that GraphQL has not spread through agent use cases with the speed or visibility of MCP. But that is a claim about adoption speed, not about value. GraphQL can still be valuable infrastructure for agents even if agents are not yet driving much new adoption of it. In practice, some of the companies best positioned to ship agents today are the ones that built the graph first. We do not think that is a coincidence.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="#where-ai-gateways-fit-and-where-they-fall-short" aria-hidden="true" class="aal_anchor" id="where-ai-gateways-fit-and-where-they-fall-short"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="aal_svg" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>Where AI gateways fit and where they fall short</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The report’s treatment of AI gateways makes the connection even more interesting. Gartner defines an AI gateway as:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“A tool that acts as an intermediary between applications and various artificial intelligence services or models. Its purpose is to simplify and manage connectivity between AI applications, agents, LLMs and enterprise applications by providing a central point to enable security, governance and observability of AI workloads.”</p>
</blockquote>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Most AI gateways today focus on traffic management: model routing, rate limits, token controls, and defenses against attacks such as prompt injection. We at Apollo believe that all of that is necessary. It is also insufficient.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">A gateway can control where a request goes without understanding what the underlying data means. It can know that an agent is allowed to call an API without knowing whether the agent should see a particular customer field returned by that API. Without a semantic model underneath it, an AI gateway risks becoming a very sophisticated traffic cop. That’s useful, but lacking the semantics to answer many of the authorization and governance questions that make managing enterprise agents difficult.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Our bet is that the category will move toward combining both layers: gateway controls for AI traffic and a governed model of enterprise data and capabilities. Agents need routing and rate limits, but they also need context. They need to know what systems contain, how concepts relate, what actions are available, and what a particular user or agent is authorized to see.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In our view, Apollo GraphOS can play that role when it is implemented as a <a href="https://www.apollographql.com/context-graph">context layer</a> for agents. It provides a centralized way to control, observe, and govern what agents do across tools and APIs, using the same federated graph that companies such as American Airlines, Indeed, and Yahoo! already operate in production. The field-level access controls, authentication, and governance are not decorations added after the agent demo gets executive attention. They are part of the graph. The ceiling is much higher with these capabilities in hand.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">MCP and GraphQL solve different and complementary problems, and American Airlines’ architecture is interesting precisely because it uses both. The hard part of enterprise agents is providing the model useful context while preserving the security, governance, and observability the organization already requires. Companies with a mature graph have a head start because they have already spent years doing that work.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Call it the trough if you want. We call it a head start.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">If you are sorting through what GraphQL, MCP, AI gateways, and the growing pile of agent protocols mean for your architecture, Apollo is offering a complimentary copy of the full <a href="https://www.apollographql.com/resources/gartner-hype-cycle-for-apis-2026">2026 Gartner Hype Cycle for APIs</a> research. If you want to talk through how GraphQL fits into your API strategy, <a href="https://www.apollographql.com/contact-sales">get in touch.</a></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>Gartner, Hype Cycle for APIs, 2026, By Shameen Pillai, Mark O&#8217;Neill, 22 May 2026.&nbsp;</em></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>Gartner and Hype Cycle are trademarks of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates.&nbsp;</em></p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph"><em>Gartner does not endorse any company, vendor, product or service depicted in its publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s business and technology insights organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this publication, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.</em></p>


What We Think the 2026 Gartner Hype Cycle Gets Right About GraphQL

Platform Engineering for APIs


<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The traditional approach to microservices in Kubernetes requires duplicating application logic into YAML config files. This leads to information fragmentation, inconsistencies, and ultimately bugs. With GraphQL and Apollo Federation, you can reduce the amount of required config, prevent duplication, and have a better experience maintaining your API. In particular, Apollo Federation can:</p>



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>Prevent conflicting API routes, and give better visibility into the entire API.</li>



<li>Ensure that routing rules always match the application code.</li>



<li>Make microservice dependencies declarative, and avoid custom networking rules between services.</li>
</ol>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="#catch-conflicting-routes" aria-hidden="true" class="aal_anchor" id="catch-conflicting-routes"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="aal_svg" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>Catch conflicting routes</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The new Kubernetes Gateway API provides a lot of ergonomic improvements over the older Ingress, and puts more power in the hands of application developers to define their routes. While this is likely a good choice for a REST API, it can also lead to unexpected behavior.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Consider a backend team at a retail company who are implementing a new feature: allowing users to subscribe to a product they purchase on a regular basis. They might introduce an <code class="" data-line="">HTTPRoute</code> rule that looks like this:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-prismatic-blocks"><code class="language-yaml" data-line="">rules:
 - matches:
     - path:
         type: RegularExpression
         value: /user/[^/]+/subscription</code></pre>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Unfortunately, they don’t know that the accounts team has already registered the <em>same</em> route to fetch a user’s membership (formerly called “subscription”)! When they roll out these changes, one of a few things could happen:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>The rule isn’t applied because the older membership route takes precedence. This is likely the preferred outcome: it doesn’t break <em>existing</em> features (and it’s what <a href="https://gateway-api.sigs.k8s.io/reference/spec/#gateway.networking.k8s.io/v1.HTTPRouteRule">the docs</a> suggest should happen), but it can lead to head-scratching on the developers’ part. Ultimately, they’ll call in the platform team to figure out what’s going on.</li>



<li>Or, the rule <em>is</em> applied because, as is the case with the popular gateway I was testing, the alphabetical order of namespaces is used to resolve conflicts <em>without</em> considering the age of the config. This is risky business: the new feature appears to be working fine, and could pass QA despite having introduced a production issue. From here, it’s only a matter of time before the error reveals itself and someone gets paged to diagnose it.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Neither outcome is great. Wouldn’t it be better if the products team were informed of the problem before ever deploying anything? With Apollo Federation, that’s exactly what happens.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">First off, the developers can delete their entire <code class="" data-line="">HTTPRoute</code>; with Federation, the same code which defines the GraphQL API of a microservice determines how routing can work. Whether locally or in CI for their pull request, the product team encounters an error when they try to build (aka “compose”) their new <code class="" data-line="">subscription</code> field:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-prismatic-blocks"><code class="" data-line="">INVALID_FIELD_SHARING: Non-shareable field &quot;User.subscription&quot; is resolved
 from multiple subgraphs: it is resolved from subgraphs 
 &quot;products&quot; and &quot;users&quot; and defined as non-shareable in all of them</code></pre>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Not only does CI fail on the conflict and prevent them from deploying something that could potentially break production, but it also tells them which other service they’re conflicting with. These early show-stopping errors carve a much faster path to diagnosis: informing the developer what happened, and where they can go to fix it.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="#preventing-incorrect-path-rules" aria-hidden="true" class="aal_anchor" id="preventing-incorrect-path-rules"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="aal_svg" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>Preventing incorrect path rules</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">A lesson we learn time and time again is that there should be a single source of truth for data, and configuration is no different. With a traditional REST microservices setup, there are at least two sources of truth for routing.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">First, the developer needs to define the route in their web framework of choice. For example, they might have this FastAPI route in a Python service:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-prismatic-blocks"><code class="language-python" data-line="">@app.get(&quot;/items/{item_id}&quot;)
async def read_item(item_id: int) -&gt; Item:
  return Item.load(item_id)</code></pre>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Second, they need to redefine the route in Kubernetes config. They’ll probably end up with something closely resembling the application code:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-prismatic-blocks"><code class="language-yaml" data-line="">rules:
 - matches:
     - path:
         type: RegularExpression
         value: /items/\d+/</code></pre>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">This works fine—that is, until the application updates to use opaque string IDs (like UUIDs). If the developer forgets to check on the Kubernetes config, the route will stop working. You could leave it to your QA team or some careful code review to catch this, or you could remove the possibility of this error entirely.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">With GraphQL and Apollo Federation, the routing information all flows from a single source in the code, so it can never be out of sync! When a developer updates their microservice, the standard CI/CD process propagates that change automatically to the router, with no manual checks required. Better yet, if that change would break downstream clients, tools like <a href="https://bit.ly/3TcpBaP">Apollo GraphOS</a> catch and stop the release in its tracks before it even rolls out to the QA environment. That means less back-and-forth, and more shipping!</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="#clean-up-inter-service-networking-rules" aria-hidden="true" class="aal_anchor" id="clean-up-inter-service-networking-rules"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="aal_svg" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>Clean up inter-service networking rules</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Most of the time, the only pods that should communicate with a microservice are the API Gateway’s pods. Security best practices tell us to lock down networking to only those interactions that are required. As a result, we’ll usually start each new microservice with a <code class="" data-line="">NetworkPolicy</code> that looks something like this:</p>



<pre class="wp-block-prismatic-blocks"><code class="language-yaml" data-line="">apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: NetworkPolicy
metadata:
 name: microservice-network-policy
spec:
 podSelector: {}
 policyTypes:
   - Ingress
 ingress:
   - from:
       - namespaceSelector:
           matchLabels:
             name: infra
         podSelector:
           matchLabels:
             app: gateway</code></pre>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Here we’re denying all ingress traffic for all pods unless it comes from the API Gateway.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Sometimes, though, one microservice needs data from another. Achieving this typically involves a request to the platform, infrastructure, and/or security teams to add a new rule for communication between those services. Worse, that rule will probably have to be broad enough in scope that <em>any</em> traffic is now allowed between those services,<em> loosening security</em> more than required. This direct communication also <em>tightens the coupling</em> between the microservices, making them harder to change and more likely to break.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">With Apollo Federation, services can set up their dependencies declaratively and let the router take care of the rest. In this example, the <code class="" data-line="">totalCost</code> field requires a <em>different</em> service’s <code class="" data-line="">products</code> field (specifically, the <code class="" data-line="">price</code> and <code class="" data-line="">shipping</code> subfields).</p>



<pre class="wp-block-prismatic-blocks"><code class="language-graphql" data-line="">type Order @key(fields: &quot;id&quot;) {
   id: ID!
   products: [Product] @external
   totalCost: Int @requires(fields: &quot;products { price shipping }&quot;)
}</code></pre>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Not only does this microservice not need to directly communicate with another microservice, it doesn’t care <em>which</em> service provides the data it needs. This decouples the services, freeing up teams to evolve their projects independently. This process also explicitly documents dependencies, so CI can prevent changes that would cause issues for other services.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Only the data that is necessary for particular request will flow between microservices, and <em>everything</em> comes through the router. This means there’s a central place to monitor and manage traffic, and networking rules can be simplified and standardized. Because adding a new dependency is a simple code change, developers can submit fewer tickets to the platform and security teams and greatly reduce the risk of shipping broken code.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="#simplify-your-kubernetes-config-today" aria-hidden="true" class="aal_anchor" id="simplify-your-kubernetes-config-today"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="aal_svg" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>Simplify your Kubernetes config today</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Using GraphQL with Apollo Federation can save time for your platform, infrastructure, and backend development teams while improving the reliability and maintainability of your microservices. It does this by removing application logic from your Kubernetes config, enabling each team to focus on what matters. If you’re interested in learning more about Apollo Federation, <a href="https://discord.gg/amVehrwMpJ">join our Discord server</a> and chat with us in the <code class="" data-line="">#apollo-federation</code> channel. If you have any ideas for improving a microservice platform that we should check out next, we’d love to hear about that too!</p>


Remove Application Logic from Kubernetes Config


<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In today&#8217;s digital world, optimizing APIs for efficiency and real-time performance is crucial. Your applications need to keep evolving by introducing new features or capabilities over time. Many organizations utilize platform engineering teams to create a self-service developer portal with the goal of accelerating their developers velocity building these new features.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">We’ve seen a trend of platform engineering teams leveraging GraphQL to power their self-service platform; this has been a game changer for them. Instead of shipping updates to your self-service platform in the magnitude of weeks or months, we find our customers are shipping updates daily with some making multiple changes a day. GraphQL is transforming the API landscape, but why are teams choosing GraphQL as their standard instead of other technologies like REST? I’ll give you a hint, it’s about the developer experience but let’s explore that more.</p>



<h1 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="#what-is-graphql" aria-hidden="true" class="aal_anchor" id="what-is-graphql"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="aal_svg" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>What is GraphQL?</h1>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Before we explore the benefits of GraphQL, let&#8217;s briefly understand what it is. GraphQL is a specification and query language that defines how to query, mutate, and subscribe to data within a graph. In simpler terms, it allows you to fetch data (queries), make changes or create data (mutations), and receive real-time updates (subscriptions) by specifying the exact fields you need. Unlike traditional REST APIs, GraphQL empowers the client developers to build features faster.</p>



<h1 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="#does-graphql-replace-rest" aria-hidden="true" class="aal_anchor" id="does-graphql-replace-rest"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="aal_svg" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>Does GraphQL replace REST?</h1>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">One common question that arises is whether GraphQL replaces REST APIs entirely. The answer is no; GraphQL and REST can coexist harmoniously. In fact, many organizations leverage GraphQL to enhance their existing REST APIs. GraphQL can be implemented as a layer on top of REST, providing flexibility and improved developer experience. It also uses POST and GET requests, making it adaptable to various scenarios like CDN caching.</p>



<h1 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="#how-graphql-elevates-api-efficiency" aria-hidden="true" class="aal_anchor" id="how-graphql-elevates-api-efficiency"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="aal_svg" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>How GraphQL Elevates API Efficiency</h1>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Many platform engineering teams have chosen GraphQL to power their self-service developer portal because of the benefits they immediately get:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Clear Observability</strong>: Implementing GraphQL over your APIs offers a unified view of usage and performance, providing a single source of truth to evaluate the effectiveness of your API investments.</li>



<li><strong>Accelerated Application Development</strong>: With GraphQL, developers are no longer hindered by the need to create new API endpoints. Anyone who can write a GraphQL query can add or modify fields to support new features and functionalities.</li>



<li><strong>Expanded Capabilities</strong>: GraphQL provides access to advanced features like real-time data with subscriptions and upcoming enhancements such as the <code class="" data-line="">@defer</code> directive, which optimizes query execution.</li>



<li><strong>Improved User Experience</strong>: Ultimately, GraphQL&#8217;s goal is to create delightful experiences for users. By simplifying data access for client developers, it streamlines development and leads to better user interfaces.</li>
</ul>



<h1 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="#the-evolution-of-api-architectures" aria-hidden="true" class="aal_anchor" id="the-evolution-of-api-architectures"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="aal_svg" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>The Evolution of API Architectures</h1>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">API architectures have been evolving for decades and we’ve seen a shift towards architectures that empower development teams to build in a “self-service” way. They have a portal to discover the data they need and resources that help them deploy newly created capabilities based on the architecture they decided. Platform engineering is a more recent trend with the goal of automating the infrastructure and providing an internal delightful developer experience. And platform engineering is not going away, here is what Garnter said in their recent post <em>&nbsp;</em><a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/what-is-platform-engineering"><em>What is Platform Engineering</em></a><em>?:</em></p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">By 2026, 80% of large software engineering organizations will establish platform engineering teams as internal providers of reusable services, components and tools for application delivery. Platform engineering will ultimately solve the central problem of cooperation between software developers and operators.</p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">&#8211; <em>Gartner, </em><a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/articles/what-is-platform-engineering"><em>What is Platform Engineering</em></a><em>?</em></p>
</blockquote>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">When you only have a single web application, it’s hard to fully grasp how that might grow. As your project gains users and success, you start to get feature requests from end-users or internally. As you build your application, the day comes where you embark on your journey to build a mobile application to bring some of those web capabilities to your users phones. What do you do? Does the new mobile application use the web application’s API? Do you create a new API for the mobile app that uses the web application’s API in a backend-for-frontend (BFF) pattern? What happens when we need to build that next thing on top of large language models (LLM) or for that paradigm like voice (like Amazon Alexa)? <em><strong>When does it stop?</strong></em></p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="553" src="https://wp.apollographql.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2024-01-04-at-10.08.02-AM-1024x553.png" alt="" class="wp-image-23085" srcset="https://wp.apollographql.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2024-01-04-at-10.08.02-AM-1024x553.png 1024w, https://wp.apollographql.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2024-01-04-at-10.08.02-AM-300x162.png 300w, https://wp.apollographql.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2024-01-04-at-10.08.02-AM-768x414.png 768w, https://wp.apollographql.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2024-01-04-at-10.08.02-AM-1200x647.png 1200w, https://wp.apollographql.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2024-01-04-at-10.08.02-AM.png 1264w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">As organizations grow, they face challenges in managing and connecting these diverse APIs efficiently. Developers become responsible for figuring out how to access the data they need to build that new feature. Adding GraphQL as a layer into your architecture can simplify the personas of your organization into consumers and contributors of your platform. A simple way to integrate new capabilities in your graph so that any of your client developers can use those new capabilities in their client applications:</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="536" height="597" src="https://wp.apollographql.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2024-01-04-at-10.30.35-AM.png" alt="" class="wp-image-23087" srcset="https://wp.apollographql.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2024-01-04-at-10.30.35-AM.png 536w, https://wp.apollographql.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2024-01-04-at-10.30.35-AM-269x300.png 269w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 536px) 100vw, 536px" /></figure>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">To address these challenges, large enterprises like Wayfair, Intuit, T-Mobile, and US Bank have successfully adopted an architecture that includes the Apollo Router. This router sits in front of multiple GraphQL APIs and orchestrates requests across the entire business. It combines these APIs into what is called the supergraph, enabling intelligent query execution. The router provides multiple benefits:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Language Agnostic</strong>: Apollo Federation supports over 40 different programming languages and frameworks, allowing flexibility in developing GraphQL APIs.</li>



<li><strong>Scalability</strong>: Adding more GraphQL servers to the infrastructure becomes straightforward, making GraphQL accessible to everyone.</li>



<li><strong>Observability</strong>: The router offers comprehensive observability, allowing organizations to track usage down to individual fields and operations.</li>



<li><strong>Real-time Support</strong>: GraphQL subscriptions and other real-time features are seamlessly integrated, simplifying the implementation of real-time experiences.</li>



<li><strong>Efficient Query Execution</strong>: The router optimizes query execution by creating query plans, enabling caching, and supporting advanced features like <code class="" data-line="">@defer</code></li>



<li><strong>Security</strong>: Security controls are built into the router, ensuring a secure GraphQL infrastructure that benefits all client developers.</li>
</ul>



<h1 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="#advanced-graphql-features" aria-hidden="true" class="aal_anchor" id="advanced-graphql-features"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="aal_svg" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>Advanced GraphQL Features</h1>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">By using GraphQL for your platform, you instantly get access to new features released into the GraphQL spec. <code class="" data-line="">@defer</code> is a new directive being added to the spec and provides a new way to progressively load data that gives a lot of power to your application developers. The <a href="https://github.com/graphql/graphql-wg">GraphQL working group</a> is very active and the community is always proposing new ideas that benefit everyone using GraphQL. </p>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Some items that don&#8217;t make the spec go on to become established patterns in GraphQL. A good example is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apollographql.com/docs/router/configuration/persisted-queries">Persisted Queries</a>. GraphQL has always supported GET requests but persisted queries doesn&#8217;t just url encode the GraphQL operation. They allow organizations to give an ID for every operation and enable requests to be smaller in size. Most teams also use this persisted query list to lock down production deployments to serve only pre-registered queries, enhancing security and control.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="#progressive-loading-with-defer" aria-hidden="true" class="aal_anchor" id="progressive-loading-with-defer"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="aal_svg" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>Progressive Loading with <code class="" data-line="">@defer</code></h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">GraphQL&#8217;s upcoming <code class="" data-line="">@defer</code> directive offers a solution for progressively loading data in queries. This directive allows client developers to indicate that certain data can be incrementally loaded when needed, improving the user experience by reducing loading times. All you have to do is add the <code class="" data-line="">@defer</code> directive your GraphQL query and the router will figure out the rest:</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="496" src="https://wp.apollographql.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2023-11-29-at-10.58.03-AM-1024x496.png" alt="" class="wp-image-23089" style="aspect-ratio:2.064516129032258;width:610px;height:auto" srcset="https://wp.apollographql.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2023-11-29-at-10.58.03-AM-1024x496.png 1024w, https://wp.apollographql.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2023-11-29-at-10.58.03-AM-300x145.png 300w, https://wp.apollographql.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2023-11-29-at-10.58.03-AM-768x372.png 768w, https://wp.apollographql.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2023-11-29-at-10.58.03-AM-1200x581.png 1200w, https://wp.apollographql.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2023-11-29-at-10.58.03-AM.png 1447w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="#real-time-advancements" aria-hidden="true" class="aal_anchor" id="real-time-advancements"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="aal_svg" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>Real-time Advancements</h2>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">GraphQL continues to push the boundaries of real-time capabilities. Features like `@stream` and new protocols within subscriptions, such as the HTTP callback protocol, enhance real-time experiences. The HTTP callback protocol reduces the need for long-lived connections and enables GraphQL APIs to publish updates to the router.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="469" src="https://wp.apollographql.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2023-12-08-at-7.40.45-AM-1024x469.png" alt="" class="wp-image-23091" srcset="https://wp.apollographql.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2023-12-08-at-7.40.45-AM-1024x469.png 1024w, https://wp.apollographql.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2023-12-08-at-7.40.45-AM-300x137.png 300w, https://wp.apollographql.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2023-12-08-at-7.40.45-AM-768x352.png 768w, https://wp.apollographql.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2023-12-08-at-7.40.45-AM-1536x703.png 1536w, https://wp.apollographql.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2023-12-08-at-7.40.45-AM-1200x550.png 1200w, https://wp.apollographql.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Screenshot-2023-12-08-at-7.40.45-AM.png 1616w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<h1 class="wp-block-heading"><a href="#conclusion" aria-hidden="true" class="aal_anchor" id="conclusion"><svg aria-hidden="true" class="aal_svg" height="16" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 16 16" width="16"><path fill-rule="evenodd" d="M4 9h1v1H4c-1.5 0-3-1.69-3-3.5S2.55 3 4 3h4c1.45 0 3 1.69 3 3.5 0 1.41-.91 2.72-2 3.25V8.59c.58-.45 1-1.27 1-2.09C10 5.22 8.98 4 8 4H4c-.98 0-2 1.22-2 2.5S3 9 4 9zm9-3h-1v1h1c1 0 2 1.22 2 2.5S13.98 12 13 12H9c-.98 0-2-1.22-2-2.5 0-.83.42-1.64 1-2.09V6.25c-1.09.53-2 1.84-2 3.25C6 11.31 7.55 13 9 13h4c1.45 0 3-1.69 3-3.5S14.5 6 13 6z"></path></svg></a>Conclusion</h1>



<p class="wp-block-paragraph">GraphQL has proven to be a game-changer in the API landscape, offering efficiency, real-time capabilities, and a better developer experience. By implementing GraphQL in platform engineering efforts, organizations can modernize their APIs and provide delightful user experiences. The adoption of the Apollo Router and the use of advanced GraphQL features further elevate the capabilities of GraphQL-based ecosystems. With GraphQL, the future of API development looks promising and user-centric. If you want to learn more, start out with <a href="https://www.apollographql.com/docs/#for-api-implementers">docs for API implementers</a> or you can watch my talk from API world below 👇</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe loading="lazy" title="GraphQL Makes Your APIs Better - Michael Watson / API World" width="580" height="326" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/S28fI-a9Euw?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>


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