If you are a software developer, chances are you have encountered the term “API gateway” at some point. But what exactly is an API gateway, and why should software development companies care? In this article, we will dive into what an API gateway is and its role in contemporary application architecture.
An API gateway is a critical component of any application architecture that provides security and performance benefits. It acts as a middle layer between the client and the web services to manage requests and responses. It can be considered a single entry point to your entire back-end infrastructure. The figure below illustrates Amazon’s API Gateway architecture.
(Image source: amazon.com)
An API gateway follows a simple pattern: when there is an incoming request from the client, it passes that request to one or more services according to certain criteria (like service availability). Then, when each service returns its response, the gateway passes it back to the client with the necessary modifications. To improve reliability, data integrity, and performance, various non-functional capabilities such as request throttling, circuit breaking, and caching may be implemented within the gateway layer.
Leveraging a proxy pattern, an API gateway takes in requests and sends them to the application service it is designed to expose. This setup is typically deployed in customers’ DMs. The endpoint of the API remains visible from outside networks while keeping applications secure within the customer’s internal network.
Nonfunctional capabilities refer to operations that do not directly involve business logic but are still required for an application to run smoothly. These include request throttling, circuit breaking, and caching.
One of the major functions of an API gateway is policy enforcement. An administrator can set up policies in a centralized place that controls what type of traffic can be routed through the gateway and access levels for different users or clients. This ensures that user access rights are enforced uniformly across all microservices in the application architecture –– regardless of how many microservices exist within it.
Aside from policy enforcement, here are some other essential features of an API Gateway that software development companies must be aware of:
Here are some popular use cases for implementing an API Gateway:
There are many different products and tools available for implementing an API gateway. Popular options include:
Each of these solutions provides features such as request routing, authentication/authorization, rate limiting, caching, load balancing, failover capabilities, analytics, monitoring tools, and more.
In conclusion, an API gateway is a powerful tool that can help developers create robust applications with microservice architectures quickly and easily. For help setting up your API gateways, contact Expeed, one of the top software development companies in Ohio today.
Expeed Software is one of the top software companies in Ohio that specializes in application development, data analytics, digital transformation services, and user experience solutions. As an organization, we have worked with some of the largest companies in the world and have helped them build custom software products, automated their processes, assisted in their digital transformation, and enabled them to become more data-driven businesses. As a software development company, our goal is to deliver products and solutions that improve efficiency, lower costs and offer scalability. If you’re looking for the best software development in Columbus Ohio, get in touch with us at today.