Microsoft simplifies access to data with the Microsoft Graph

At this week’s Connect() 2015 virtual conference, Microsoft made a number of announcements aimed at developers, but perhaps the one with the most immediate impact is Microsoft Graph.  The new unified API endpoint gathers (or will soon gather) all of the important data access a developer would want from Microsoft services together, meaning that instead of having to write to many different authorizations for the many varied services available from Microsoft, Office and Azure.
 
The new Microsoft Graph offers:

• A unified API endpoint for accessing aggregated data from multiple Microsoft cloud services in a single response
• Seamless navigation between entities and and the relationships among them
• Access to intelligence and insights coming from the Microsoft cloud

What this means is that instead of writing to lots of individual endpoints, for say Users, Groups, Files, Mail, etc., a developer can access a single endpoint, and then not only access, but work not only with the data, but also with intelligence and insights that come from the Microsoft cloud.
If you’re a developer, you can learn more from the Microsoft Graph website. Even if you’re not a developer, you should be seeing the benefits of the Microsoft Graph in the apps you use, as they take advantage of the newer, easier, and more intelligent single endpoint for Microsoft services.