The simplest answer to “What is an API gateway?” is that it’s a traffic manager for data that applies policies, authentication, and general access control to keep data secure. An API gateway gives you control over your backendbackems and optimizes communication between external clients and backend devices. API gateways ensure your services’ scalability and availability by routing requests and responses to and from the appropriate services. API gateways maintain a secure connection between data and APIs while managing API traffic and requests.
Much like phone line operators, once they receive a call, they connect it. Accordingly, an API gateway receives API calls from consumers and directs them to the correct microservices using request routing, composition, and protocol translation. One of the most common reasons API gateways are useful is that they can route multiple backend devices and aggregate results. This is an effective alternative to the one-size-fits-all API, resulting in a better user experience.
An API gateway authenticates API calls to be established once at the gate before being routed to potentially multiple services. Authentication reduces latency and ensures consistent processes across the application. API gateways can call other systems to verify requestors’ identities and assess the risk level of incoming API consumers. If necessary, the risk assessment of an incoming API can be delegated to a third-party application.
The more microservices are used, the more valuable API gateways are. Microservices allow for the deconstruction of an application into coupled services, making it easier to develop, deploy, and maintain different functions within an application. The trouble with microservices is that they make it challenging for customers to access the application quickly and securely. API gateways solve this issue by serving as a single request entry point. This is essential to businesses that experience high call traffic from mobile applications such as Uber or backend applications such as Maps.
faster, simpler, and more secure access to your services. Digital business models can benefit greatly from implementing API gateways. Presenting APIs and backend systems in the backend interface offers better security, simpler code writing, decreased latency, faster access to microservices, reduced load or load balancing, and a comprehensive collection of metrics. An API gateway is a smart way to conceal how your application is partitioned from the requestor because they no longer need to know individual services’ locations.
It’s far easier and faster to test and release new versions of an API when you can run them simultaneously using an API gateway. Requestors experience the lowest possible latency for API requests while backend services are adjusted to withstand traffic spikes.
API gateways are commonly used in modern architectures to manage API requests, aggregate responses, and enforce service-level agreements. They’re also essential to protecting APIs by providing an additional layer of security to access points. The more APIs are connected with the digital ecosystem of applications, developers, partners, and customer experiences, the more valuable they become.
