GraphQL Federation has solidified itself as a popular standard for unifying APIs, but for teams adopting Federation, operational complexity along with the infrastructure demands of managing subgraphs as independently deployed services can create friction. In this talk, we’ll explore a new architectural pattern that allows us to retain the benefits of Federation while removing the overhead and burden of traditional subgraph management.

We introduce the concept of virtualized subgraphs, where subgraph logic is integrated directly into the API gateway at runtime using WebAssembly. This enables fine-grained control, secure execution, and the elimination of additional cross-service network calls. Subgraphs can now integrate REST, gRPC, and even direct database connections like Postgres, all within the same federated graph.

We’ll dive into:

How WebAssembly enables secure, sandboxed execution of subgraph logic
A new extension mechanism that allows developers to add custom behavior, access controls, and observability hooks into any part of the graph lifecycle
Real-world examples of federated graphs that unify REST, gRPC, and Postgres with no dedicated subgraph deployments
The trade-offs: what you gain in simplicity and performance, and what you lose compared to traditional Federation