GraphQL Summit Recap: Exploring Diverse GraphQL Solutions
Overview
Last week, Inigo proudly participated in the GraphQL Summit in San Diego, where we engaged with a diverse crowd of GraphQL users and some members of the open-source GraphQL community. The event saw participation from various stakeholders in the GraphQL community including Apollo, the organizer of the GraphQL Summit.
Our CEO, Shahar Binyamin, delivered an engaging talk on GraphQL adoption, attracting a nearly packed room and sparking numerous follow-up conversations. We spoke with over a hundred attendees during booth sessions, breakfasts, lunches, and the evening event, which provided insights and valuable perspectives on real-world GraphQL challenges.
Challenges Encountered by GraphQL Users
Here are the key challenges we discovered at GraphQL Summit from those currently implementing GraphQL in production or endeavoring to do so:
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Desire for GraphOS Alternatives/Abstraction Layer: Attendees expressed the need for alternatives to GraphOS and its various features, including gateway/router, federation, schema composition/registry, observability, and security. As many are in the evaluation phase of expanding their GraphQL usage, considering other platforms has become essential to the decision-making process.
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Challenges with Federation: Apollo Federation adoption presented difficulties, with specific concerns surrounding schema refactoring, subgraph composition, the move to the router and the transition to Federation v2.
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Needing Flexible Deployments: Many sought more flexible deployment options, particularly regarding the gateway/router running in private clouds and an isolated GraphQL management platform.
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Enhanced Security Requirements: Security was a top priority, with attendees looking for features like rate limiting and role-based access control (RBAC) in the next phase of GraphQL adoption.
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Compliance and Observability Concerns: Some attendees sought better compliance tools, including auditing and certification controls. They expressed a need for granular observability, similar to Inigo Analytics.
Notable Talks
The summit featured numerous insightful talks, and Apollo is currently releasing videos of these sessions. Stay tuned as all of them will be posted in the near future!
Some of the talks that resonated most with the Inigo team included:
- 200 NOT OK: High-Resolution Observability by Joey Nenni (PayPal)
- How Intuit Handled The Busiest Time Of Year by Rama Palaniappan (Intuit)
- Locally Debugging Supergraphs at Dow Jones by Ethan Ruoff (Dow Jones)
- Monoliths, Migrations and Mergers Jameson Athanasiou (Liberty Mutual), Hunter Houston (EVgo), Shweta Sharma (Intuit), Conor Dempsey (Poppulo)
- Caching Strategy for High Volume Personalized Content Requests by Emily Voytek (MLB) and Jamie Finucane (MLB)
- From 50 Shades Of Apis to The Least Shady by Arsalan Ellahi (KiwiBank)
Conclusion
The GraphQL Summit showcased a growing interest in exploring a variety of GraphQL technologies and vendors to address diverse needs. This enthusiasm underscores the desire for a healthy array of options in the GraphQL space, which is crucial for the continued growth of GraphQL in the software industry.
Inigo came out of the GraphQL Summit with many new friends and potential customers. We look forward to continuing the conversations and staying connected with those we met. If you missed us at the GraphQL Summit or are facing similar challenges to those who attended, please reach out and schedule a meeting to discuss.
Lastly, for those using the Apollo Gateway or Router and interested in exploring additional functionalities, Inigo offers features like schema composition, schema checking, and schema registry, all compatible with your existing deployment. We're here to demonstrate the possibilities and welcome a discussion to better understand your needs. To learn more, please set up a demo, and we will show you what’s possible!
