What if everything goes right? N-able's API bet, then MCP.
N-able's customers kept asking for something they couldn't name — a way through API sprawl left by years of acquisitions. Dhanik Alkegama's team built them a graph, and it caught on faster than anyone planned, but nobody was thinking about AI. Then Apollo MCP Server arrived at exactly the right moment, and the thing customers could never describe became something they could simply ask their agents for.Dhanik Alkegama runs the API platform at N-able, where the graph sits in front of security and IT management products protecting around 9 million endpoints. He walks through building it under SOAP, REST, and JSON-RPC sprawl, and the internal fight to make education a requirement rather than a suggestion. His conclusion: the graph was the right call, and MCP is what proved it.
Since this recording, N-able's MCP server has gone public — and Halo ITSM built their own MCP against it, unprompted.
Dhanik Alkegama, Engineering Manager, N-able.
Chapters
0:00 "They were praying for a graph"
0:25 When tech adoption outruns the plan
1:10 N-able API mess
6:29 Making the case to leadership
8:07 Planning for one team. A dozen showed up
11:15 Success becomes the problem
12:32 Education as Infra
14:52 Four people governing a dozen teams
19:22 Apollo MCP Server arrives just in time
25:09 Contracts: one graph serves two audiences
26:31 Three lessons Dhanik would pass on
Links
Apollo MCP Server: https://www.apollographql.com/docs/apollo-mcp-server
Odyssey, the training behind the mandate: https://www.apollographql.com/tutorials/
N-able developer portal: https://developer.n-able.com
Dhanik Alkegama: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhanik-alkegama/
If you're working to power your AI efforts and APIs are in the way, email me and I'll connect you with Dhanik and other API champions — onthegraph@apollographql.com
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