Hasura Inc., a startup that sells a commercial version of the popular open-source GraphQL data management language, today announced a key update to that platform, integrating “supergraph” technology that makes it easier for applications to access data from multiple sources.

The company said Hasura V3 is available now in beta, touting a new “domain-centric supergraph modeling framework” that sets a new standard for application programming interface composability. In addition, it comes with a new, distributed supergraph execution engine and various open-source data connectors to help address some of the challenges of data and API integration.

San Francisco-based Hasura’s flagship Data API Platform makes it easier for developers to use GraphQL, which is an open-source tool for building software applications that run more efficiently. GraphQL’s main purpose is to make it easier for developers to build APIs, which are used by applications to retrieve information from databases.

Usually, when an app requests access to records held within a database, the database determines how that information is delivered, rather than the app. But this is a problem because it often causes technical issues, such as the database sending more information than requested, or providing it in a format that the app cannot read or process.

GraphQL fixes that, ensuring the app only receives the information requested, avoiding unnecessary data transfers that can eat up the available bandwidth. This can translate to significant cost savings at large scale, and it also helps to improve application performance.

With the launch of V3, Hasura is aiming to provide even more reliable API access to data through its innovative new supergraph features.

Supergraphs simplify data access

Hasura defines a supergraph as an architecture and operating model for building and scaling multiple data domains as a single graph of composable entities and operations. They provide the benefits of centralized, monolithic architectural approaches within a federated, microservices-based model.

According to Hasura, this is vital because the vast majority of modern apps rely on microservices architectures, where their components are all isolated from one another. This architectural approach provides benefits such as greater flexibility and scalability, but comes at a cost of increased data complexity.

One of the challenges Hasura is attempting to tackle relates to complex data aggregations such as “nested joins” and “nested filters,” which are needed to aggregate information from multiple sources. Building APIs that support these aggregations has typically been a major headache for developers. But Hasura says its supergraphs enable superior composability for APIs through the simple act of declaring how various data domains are related, making it simple to create them.

Moreover, the new supergraph modeling framework within Hasura V3 provides a fast and reliable way for developers to create and evolve the necessary supergraphs. The framework enables developers to define a supergraph by specifying how entities and domains are related, eliminating the need to create GraphQL servers and services. The startup said its modeling framework is data agnostic, enabling users to add new domains or swap out existing data sources quickly without breaking anything.

Another new feature is the distributed supergraph execution engine, which is a serverless runtime engine that helps to operate supergraphs at scale, ensuring high performance, reliability and security. The company cited an efficient query compiler and router, a distributed edge network, and edge routing and edge caching to provide users global low latency and high availability in their APIs without extra operational overhead.

“Hasura V3 gives teams the power of a supergraph to streamline and simplify the developer and operations workflows that go into serving data from any source to the end user via fast, secure, flexible and reliable APIs,” said Hasura co-founder and Chief Executive Tanmai Gopal. “In today’s world of accelerating data and backend sprawl, the supergraph is a must-have.”

Other new capabilities include a new, open-source connector hub that translates supergraph queries into database queries, with support for PostgreSQL, Yugabyte, CockroachDB, Citus, Timescale DB, Neon, Google Cloud SQL, AlloyDB, AWS Aurora PostgreSQL, AzureDB PostgreSQL and CosmosDB PostgreSQL at launch. There’s also a new software development kit for developers to build their own connectors if they need to access an unsupported database.

For developers building and updating supergraphs, Hasura supports pre-commit validation to ensure that any changes are validated before being activated in the real world. With this, developers can identify any bugs, stylistic issues and syntax errors and fix them prior to updating their APIs. Finally, there’s a new supergraph viewer (pictured) that provides a visualization of how all of the data sources within the graph are connected to one another.

Enterprise Management Associates analyst Torsten Volk said API strategies have failed to keep up with the evolving data layer that feeds most modern applications, meaning that developers are spending much of their time finding and understanding their data and composing APIs to enable access to it. He said this time could be much better spent on developing new features, so anything that automates these processes is likely to be well received.

“The supergraph is a powerful paradigm that has the potential to solve these challenges by providing a unified semantic graph that connects all data – no matter the source – and making it available via one composable endpoint,” Volk explained. “Platforms like Hasura that not only make it easier for organizations to create and manage supergraphs, but layer new functionality that makes it easier to visualize and utilize data on top of that, are providing strong value at every level of the org chart today.”

Image: Hasura