June 2020 Summaries

Jessica Russell's project, Disability Civility, emerged as a winner of the 2020 Tyk Side Project Fund, which aims to support innovative side projects globally. Disability Civility, led by Russell, focuses on fostering respectful interactions between disabled and able-bodied communities through educational courses that address ableism and promote inclusivity. Inspired by personal experiences and research into the intrusive questioning faced by people with visible disabilities, the project aims to reshape societal perceptions of disability. Initially launched as a pilot workshop, the initiative has transitioned online, although it still requires further development to reach its full potential. The Tyk funding will enable Disability Civility to enhance its online presence and reach a broader audience, with a vision to offer the training both freely to individuals and potentially as a chargeable resource for corporate development. Russell emphasizes the importance of believing in one's side project to navigate the challenges of balancing it with a full-time job and other commitments, viewing passion and belief as crucial to gaining support and sustaining momentum.

Postwoman.io, now known as Hoppscotch, is an innovative API request builder that simplifies the process of creating API requests directly from a web browser, offering support for REST APIs, WebSockets, Socket.io endpoints, MQTT Broker, and GraphQL endpoints. Developed by Liyas Thomas, a 23-year-old from India, the project emerged from his need for a lightweight API testing tool after encountering limitations with existing solutions on his low-end PC. Despite challenges such as coordinating across time zones and financial constraints, the project has gained traction through open-source community support and is benefiting from the Tyk Side Project Fund, which provides financial assistance for essential services like website datastore and hosting. Driven by values of self-development and career growth, Liyas emphasizes the importance of side projects in the tech industry for personal development and professional advancement.

GraphQL, a query language for APIs developed by Facebook, is gaining significant traction among enterprises due to its ability to improve data fetching efficiency and developer productivity. Companies like Airbnb, Shopify, GitHub, Expedia, and Trulia have adopted GraphQL, seeing benefits such as reduced server round trips, unified data access, and simplified API management. As these companies transition from RESTful APIs to GraphQL, they report enhanced flexibility in data queries, improved collaboration among teams, and faster feature delivery. Despite challenges in adopting a new technology, the advantages of GraphQL's unified data graph are compelling, especially in an era where mobile devices are capable of handling complex data aggregation. To address adoption barriers, platforms like Tyk are introducing tools to simplify the design, implementation, and security management of GraphQL services, aiming to make the technology more accessible across organizations.

Yaara Letz, a Partner Consulting Engineer at Tyk, balances her technical role with personal commitments and a flexible work schedule, which allows her to manage both client relationships and family life effectively. Her journey from Israel to London and a varied career path from a C++ developer to a front-facing consulting engineer highlights her adaptability and passion for problem-solving. Yaara's role involves extensive travel across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and occasionally North America to assist clients with technical challenges and improve Tyk's product offerings. She values honesty, self-discipline, and a client-first approach, emphasizing genuine communication and collaboration over sales-driven interactions. Her personal interests include vegan cooking, running, and learning crochet, showcasing a well-rounded life outside her professional commitments.

Tyk has introduced a new release process and versioning strategy to provide clarity and stability for its users, partners, and integrators, while allowing for an accelerated release cadence. The major version numbers for Tyk Gateway and Dashboard have been synchronized and updated to version 3, with plans to release two major updates annually, followed by two minor updates that include smaller enhancements, and patch releases for bug fixes. This new approach includes Long Term Support, ensuring each major version is supported for a year, while minor versions are only supported until the next release. The strategy aims to balance the need for stability with the desire for new features, offering users the choice between long-term support with fewer updates or more frequent updates with limited support duration.

The Tyk Side Project Fund, designed to support innovative ideas with seed funding, has recognized ddxed as a standout project. Founded by medical student Kacper Niburski, ddxed aims to revolutionize the approach to differential diagnosis education by creating a database to assist clinicians and medical students in making more accurate and clinically sound decisions. Despite the challenges of balancing medical school and project development, as well as financial constraints, Niburski is driven by a commitment to altruism and improving patient care. The Tyk grant and associated publicity are pivotal in facilitating ddxed's growth and enhancing its visibility, potentially connecting it with British medical schools.

Jennifer Craig discusses Tyk's introduction of the Universal Data Graph (UDG), a feature designed to enhance the integration and management of GraphQL within APIs through Tyk's open-source API Gateway and Enterprise Management Platform. UDG aims to streamline the use of GraphQL by addressing common challenges such as authentication, authorization, and security management, allowing front-end developers to focus on application logic while backend developers concentrate on their services. The platform introduces an API Product Manager role to nurture the GraphQL API and implement security policies, making it easier to prepare APIs for public consumption, subscription, and monetization. Tyk's no-code approach, which includes a point-and-click interface for designing GraphQL schemas and connecting data sources, reduces technical debt and facilitates seamless integration with traditional REST APIs. The technology also provides mechanisms to prevent denial-of-service attacks and manage query complexity, ensuring secure and efficient API management while enabling users to focus on solving business problems. The article invites users to explore Tyk's UDG through a free trial, promising ongoing enhancements and community collaboration in shaping its future development.

The Tyk Universal Data Graph (UDG) is a new feature in the Tyk Open Source API Gateway that simplifies unifying and controlling access to various data sources within an organization without requiring coding skills. It allows users to create GraphQL endpoints that combine data from multiple sources such as REST services, databases, and spreadsheets, all while offering enterprise-grade API management features like complex access policies, rate limiting, and detailed analytics. Unlike standard GraphQL servers, the UDG provides advanced capabilities such as schema stitching across disparate sources, field-level permissions, and a visual designer for easier data management. Tyk aims to enhance connectivity among systems globally and invites community involvement to refine the product further, offering a free two-week trial to explore its features.

Andy Smith is a Consulting Engineer at Tyk, a cloud-native platform, where his role involves bridging the gap between users and engineers by providing support, demos, and ongoing assistance while users evaluate and integrate Tyk's solutions. Having recently transitioned from a career in quantity surveying to the tech industry, Andy appreciates the company's informal and remote-friendly culture, which allows him to balance office and home-based work. He values learning and staying updated with new technologies, aligning with Tyk's forward-thinking environment. His approach to customer support emphasizes adaptable engagement, allowing users to evaluate products at their own pace. In his personal life, Andy enjoys reading crime fiction, running, playing tennis, and watching Netflix, reflecting a balance between professional commitment and personal interests.