API Management

API Gateways and Microservices Security API gateways sit at the edge of a microservices stack. They act like a front door, deciding who can enter and how requests travel to backend services. When security is built into the gateway, teams can protect data, control traffic, and reduce risk across many services. This post shares practical ideas to strengthen API gateways and safeguard microservices without slowing delivery. The goal is simple: clear policies, verified identities, and trusted communication. ...

API Governance: Design, Security, and Observability APIs shape how teams share data and services. Good governance helps speed up work while keeping safety and quality. This article looks at three pillars—design, security, and observability—and shows how to connect them in one framework. Design governance Clear rules save time later. Use contract-first thinking with OpenAPI to define endpoints before code. Favor stable naming, predictable paths, and consistent error formats. Create a short design guide and share it across teams. Maintain a central catalog of APIs with versioning notes and deprecation timelines. For example, distinguish v1 and v2 clearly and mark deprecated endpoints. ...

APIs and Middleware: Building Bridges Between Systems APIs define how software speaks to one another. Middleware sits between them to smooth the talk. They help teams connect services, data, and users without rebuilding everything from scratch. The idea is simple: stable interfaces (APIs) plus a smart middle layer that handles formatting, authentication, retries, and routing. When well designed, systems become easier to change and scale. APIs come in many forms—REST, GraphQL, and webhooks. Middleware can act as a gateway, a message bus, or an adapter layer. It translates data, negotiates protocols, and enforces policies like rate limits and access control. The result is a landscape where parts evolve independently while a shared contract keeps everyone aligned. ...

API Gateways and Management Best Practices An API gateway acts as the single entry point for client requests. It centralizes security, routing, and policy enforcement, helping teams stay predictable as systems grow. A well managed gateway reduces risk and speeds new features to market. Centralize policy control Policies should live in one place and apply to all APIs. Define authentication, authorization, rate limits, quotas, and caching rules once, then reuse them across services. Keep gateway configuration in version control and treat it as a source of truth. ...

Real world API governance and versioning Real world API governance and versioning is not about control alone. It is about clear contracts, predictable changes, and good communication across teams and partners. In practice, governance works when there are roles, policies, and lightweight automation. A product owner, a platform owner, and a small change advisory board can keep things moving without slowing innovation. Versioning patterns vary. Path versioning (for example /api/v1/resources) is easy to understand. Header versioning (such as X-API-Version: 2) can reduce URL churn but adds checks for clients. Some teams combine both, routing logic at the edge and in gateway layers. The rule of thumb: choose a scheme that minimizes breaking changes and makes dependencies visible to consumers. ...

API Gateways and Service Meshes: Managing Microservices In a microservices world, traffic management is essential. API gateways and service meshes address different layers of this problem. A gateway sits at the boundary, while a service mesh operates inside the system. Together they improve security, reliability, and developer speed. What API gateways do API gateways act as a single entry point for external clients. They usually handle TLS termination, authentication, rate limiting, and request routing. They can transform requests, enforce API versions, and cache responses for common calls. If you run many public APIs, a gateway keeps things consistent and controlled. ...

API Gateways and Service Mesh Explained In modern apps, traffic flows from users into the public internet and then between many internal services. Two tools help manage this flow: API gateways and service meshes. They serve different goals, but many teams use both to improve security, reliability, and visibility. What is an API Gateway? An API gateway is the single entry point for clients. It sits at the edge and routes requests to the right service. Common duties include: ...

API Gateways and Service Mesh in Microservices In modern software, teams split applications into multiple services. API gateways and service meshes help manage this complexity. The gateway acts as the door to the outside world, while the mesh watches over internal service calls. Together, they improve security, reliability, and visibility. What an API gateway does Routes external requests to the right service Terminate TLS and perform authentication Apply rate limits, caching, and simple transformations Support API versioning and client-facing policies What a service mesh does Manages service-to-service communication with mTLS Provides retries, timeouts, and load balancing Offers observability: metrics, traces, and logs Enforces policies and enables traffic control (canary, A/B) How they fit together The gateway handles north-south traffic (clients outside the cluster) The mesh handles east-west traffic (services inside) Many platforms offer an ingress gateway that can also expose some mesh features In Kubernetes, you often combine an Ingress controller with a service mesh like Istio or Linkerd Practical patterns Separate concerns: gateway at the edge, mesh inside the cluster Use mutual TLS across services for strong security Use the gateway for rate limits, API keys, and basic auth Rely on the mesh for resilience: retries, timeouts, and load balancing Set up good observability: traces, dashboards, and alerts A simple example An external client calls /api/v1/orders. The API gateway routes this to the orders service. Inside the cluster, the orders service talks to inventory and payment services through the service mesh, which handles mTLS, retries, and tracing. This keeps external contracts stable while internal calls stay resilient. ...

API Gateways and Service Meshes In modern apps, API gateways and service meshes help manage traffic, security, and visibility. An API gateway sits at the edge, handling requests from clients and external systems. A service mesh runs inside the cluster, routing service-to-service calls with lightweight proxies. Together, they provide a robust, secure, and observable network for microservices. What they do API gateways route external requests to the right service, enforce authentication, apply rate limits, and sometimes translate protocols. They can also cache responses and shield internal services from direct exposure. Service meshes manage internal traffic between services. They enable mTLS for mutual authentication, retries, timeouts, and fine-grained traffic routing. They collect metrics, traces, and logs for better observability. How they differ Gateways operate on the north-south edge of the system, focusing on client access and external policy. Service meshes focus on east-west communication inside the cluster, providing security and reliability for internal calls. ...