Solo.io Brings GraphQL to Istio, Allowing Developers to Easily Query Distributed Applications and Microservices
Istio Service Mesh Leader Is “First and Only” to Combine Enterprise-Class Service Mesh Connectivity, Security, and Reliability with Developer-Friendly GraphQL Query Language
LOS ANGELES, ServiceMeshCon/KubeCon + CloudNativeCon — Oct. 12, 2021 — Solo.io, the application networking company, today announced that it is adding GraphQL support into Gloo Mesh and Gloo Edge, enabling developers to efficiently query microservices while benefiting from the connectivity, security, and reliability provided by an Istio service mesh. The company is providing a GraphQL server, resolvers, a GraphQL schema generator, and schema stitching for GraphQL — all driven by declarative configuration.
GraphQL: A Standardized Approach… with Growing Pains
GraphQL is an open-source data query language for APIs that has grown in popularity among enterprises seeking to simplify client-server interactions. GraphQL provides a powerful and flexible alternative to REST for requesting data from microservices applications. It provides declarative data fetching, with a client specifying exactly what data it needs from an API and underlying services through a single endpoint. Even as backend services and data sources change, the API doesn’t change from the client’s perspective. Although GraphQL provides a consistent and predictable API, the code, time, and effort required to build the GraphQL server to respond to requests can be considerable. Too often developers must write specific libraries for caching, security, rate-limiting, failover, and many other functions.
“GraphQL significantly increases developer velocity because it makes it dramatically easier to consume APIs. However, developers still need to write a significant amount of code to handle access control, caching, security, federation, and reliability,” said Idit Levine, founder and CEO, Solo.io. “By adding GraphQL support to Gloo Mesh and Gloo Edge, we are saving developers the task of writing code in specific libraries and allowing them to tap the service mesh and API gateway for this functionality.”
Solo.io’s GraphQL extensions for Envoy and Istio service mesh will enable developers to declaratively define GraphQL schema and server capabilities, including role-based access control (RBAC) using the familiar YAML programming language. It will auto-generate schema from almost any data source including REST, gRPC, SQL, SOAP, and additional data sources. The GraphQL module will enhance the Envoy Proxy filter chain in Gloo Mesh and Gloo Edge with a resolver that gives Envoy the ability to provide a GraphQL API endpoint. Developers can also write customer resolvers with Web Assembly (Wasm) to extend the API infrastructure to meet specific needs.
“Even though GraphQL allows you to describe schemas and provides the query language to retrieve data from those schemas, service developers still need to write code to manage access control, security, rate-limiting, and other API concerns,” said Yuval Kohavi, chief architect at Solo.io. “With our GraphQL extensions for Envoy and Istio, developers can auto-generate schema and use the declarative configuration capabilities of Gloo Mesh to define connectivity, security, and even observability capabilities.”
GraphQL via Solo.io Gloo Edge and Gloo Mesh
Solo.io’s GraphQL module embeds a GraphQL server natively into Gloo Mesh (Istio-based service mesh) and Gloo Edge (Envoy-based API gateway), enabling federated GraphQL queries of APIs. This consistency makes the GraphQL protocol much easier for enterprises to adopt and implement efficiently at scale. Solo.io’s GraphQL support includes GraphQL lifecycle and collaboration capabilities that allow developers to store GraphQL schemas as code, observe usage and publish information, and manage schema and server changes in Gloo Portal.
Details and Availability
GraphQL will be a separately licensed module for Gloo Edge and Gloo Mesh and will be commercially available later this year.
Join Solo.io at ServiceMeshCon
Solo.io is at ServiceMeshCon North America 2021, the largest, most influential event in the service mesh industry. Solo.io CEO Idit Levine will give a keynote, “Super-Charge Your Mesh Services with Enhanced Data Access.” The Solo.io team will also present at seven sessions. ServiceMeshCon, co-located with KubeCon, is a hybrid event held in Los Angeles, CA, and virtually on Tuesday, October 12, 2021. For more information, click here.
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Media Contact
Erica Anderson
Offleash PR for Solo.io
solo@offleashpr.com
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