Why API Management Tools ?
API (Application Programming Interface)
APIs are used to connect to services as well as share data. This data is very integral to businesses and therefore must be protected to avoid breach, misuse, traffic surges which may cause downtime, and the like.
API Management - What is it?
Api Management helps manage the entire lifecycle of an API. It allows organisations design, secure and scale, publish, and analyse APIs from a single environment/source which helps reduce security vulnerabilities. It also allows for discoverability and use by other developers.
- Apigee as an api management tool.
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Apigee is a proxy that protects backend services by acting as the source endpoint for receiving requests. This ensures consistency between api versions and continuity, in that, updates in the backend don’t break/affect functionality. You can add policies for filtering, security, traffic management, etc. on a proxy. You can also have multiple proxies or endpoints that map to your backend services.
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Apigee supports developer portals, where developers can discover, understand and access your APIs depending on the accessibility configuration you set, and make secure requests to them through API keys and OAuth. This paves way for monetization of your APIs.
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Apigee supports analytics i.e. api monitoring, alerts on incidents, developer activities, to sum it up -- how your API is being used. This allows organisations make well informed future decisions based on insights gained from analytics.
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Other api management tools include Postman, Azure, Swagger, SAP, etc.
The concept of api management allows organizations ship & deliver valuable products, agility, as well as supports business continuity.