Azure API Management – Part 1

APIs – Application programming interfaces are everywhere!
We often build APIs to be consumed by a unique application. However, we could also build these APIs to be shared. If you write HTTP APIs around a single and specific business requirement, you can encourage API re-usability and adoption.

There are multiple scenarios and questions comes in mind when we think about API design

• Can I publish my existing and future APIs back-ends to API Management?
• Can I apply security without affecting existing API?
• Can I modify response format without changing in existing API logic?

Answer to all questions is “YES”. Azure API management can help you make this happen. Azure API Management is fully PaaS (platform-as-a-service) API solution. It provides a high scalable and multi-regional Gateway that can be deployed on any Azure Region around the world. Using this solution we can encourage API adoption and re-usability.

When business is looking Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) and time to market is strategy then we have constraint to write Authentication, Authorization, Caching, Analytics and Transformation over and over again. Azure API management is a mature and rich platform using which we can expose APIs with extensive governance and with multiple benefits.

Key points of API Management Solution

• API’s can be imported using swagger, created manually or as part of a custom automation/integration process.
• GIT source control repository available with APIM instance to manage API configuration.
• Provides a rich developers portal. Developers can create an account/profile, discover APIs and subscribe to products. API Documentation, multiple language source code samples, console to try APIs, API subscription keys management and Analytics are main features provided.
• User groups and user(developers) can be fully integrated with Azure Active Directory.
• Analytics and Insight dashboards and reports are available on configured APIs.
• Email notifications and templates are customization.
• OAuth2.0, OpenId and Client Certificate features are easily integrated with this platform to secure APIs without affecting existing API logic.
• Administrators can customize developers portal using built in content management systems functionality.

API Management platform is made up of 3 strong components

• API Gateway
• Developer Portal
• Administrative or Publisher Portal

In my next post, I will talk about API Management components and how deep this platform can go.

Happy Coding!