Cloud routing for supergraphs
Learn about Apollo-managed cloud routers
When you create a cloud supergraph, GraphOS provisions and manages a cloud router. Routers act as entry points to your GraphQL APIs. Individual GraphQL APIs are called subgraphs in this architecture.
Clients send operations to your router's public endpoint instead of your subgraphs.
GraphOS only hosts the runtime for your supergraph's cloud router. GraphQL servers for your subgraphs are still hosted in your infrastructure.
Create your first cloud supergraph
Federation and subgraph compatibility
Cloud supergraphs use Apollo Federation 2 for their core architecture. Many GraphQL server libraries support Federation 2. Your GraphQL API doesn't already need to be using Apollo Federation to add it to a cloud supergraph.
Cloud router types and availability
Cloud supergraphs are only available to organizations with Serverless and Dedicated plans. They aren't available with Enterprise or legacy Free or Team plans.
Serverless cloud routers run on shared infrastructure. Dedicated cloud routers run on dedicated infrastructure that you control and scale. See the pricing page for more information.
Cloud router regions
Serverless cloud routers are hosted in the us-east-1 AWS region. Dedicated cloud routers have a wider variety of options. Region selection for cloud routers is only available on the Dedicated plan. Contact Sales to learn more.
ⓘ NOTE
Some legacy Serverless cloud routers are hosted in Chicago, Illinois. If your Serverless graph's Overview page doesn't show AWS-us-east-1 under the graph ref, then it is hosted in Chicago.
Cloud router status
Cloud routers can have the following statuses:
| Status | Description |
|---|---|
| Initializing | Your cloud router is being created. This process may take up to five minutes. Learn more. |
| Running | Your graph is operating normally. |
| Error | Your cloud router is running, but a deployment recently failed. For more information on the failure, see the Launches page in GraphOS Studio. |
ⓘ NOTE
Serverless routers have additional statuses, including Sleeping and Deleted. Learn more on the Serverless overview page.
You can see your cloud router's status in GraphOS Studio on the associated graph's Overview page.
Initializing
Apollo provisions a router whenever you create a cloud supergraph in GraphOS Studio or whenever you create a new variant for an existing cloud supergraph. Each variant has its own distinct router.
When you first create a variant, the router provisioning process can take a few minutes. While this process completes, an INITIATING ENDPOINT label appears at the top of the variant's page in Studio:
Once initialized, you can configure your cloud router.
Cloud launches
Publishing a new subgraph schema or editing a cloud router's config triggers a new launch. Every launch automatically deploys new router instances for your graph. You can see a launch's details, including possible failures, from a graph's Launches page in GraphOS Studio.
ⓘ NOTE
A router deployment might fail due to a platform incident or schema composition issues. To resolve this, try republishing your subgraph schema.
Router version updates
Apollo manages the version of Apollo Router deployed to cloud routers. It ensures that newly released versions are deployed within 30 days of release. Some minor and patch versions may be skipped.
Router releases go through rigorous testing before deployment on GraphOS Cloud. An Apollo engineer oversees deployment. If any cloud routers fail to boot up, they roll back to a previous version. While some edge cases may arise—for example, a query planner update could result in slightly degraded performance—router updates should not disrupt your supergraphs.
ⓘ NOTE
Opting out of router updates to cloud routers isn't currently supported. Advanced version management will be available in Dedicated in 2024.
Security and compliance
The entire GraphOS platform, including its cloud routing infrastructure, is SOC 2 Type 2 certified. Secrets are encrypted both in transit and at rest. Secrets are only available inside the runtime environment. You have total control over when those secrets are resolved in configuration.
The Apollo Router (the underlying technology for cloud routing) has been tested and audited by Doyensec.
GraphOS Cloud on AWS
GraphOS Cloud on AWS is a managed API solution. It runs the Apollo Router on AWS infrastructure to provide a high-performance, configurable GraphQL router.
Download an overview of GraphOS Cloud on AWS security and compliance practices. For more information on Apollo's compliance and security measures, visit the Trust Center.