Key strengths of Azure API management
1. Security features
Azure API Management provides a range of security features to protect your APIs and ensure secure access:
- Certificates: APIM supports the use of client certificates for mutual authentication, ensuring that only trusted clients can access your APIs. Certificates can be securely stored and managed using Azure Key Vault.
- OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect: APIM integrates with Azure Active Directory (AAD) to support OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect, providing robust authentication and authorisation mechanisms.
- Network security: Deploy APIM within a Virtual Network (VNet) to control access to backend services. It supports both internal and external configurations, allowing you to restrict access to APIs based on network boundaries.
- Threat protection: Built-in policies for rate limiting, throttling, and IP filtering help protect APIs from abuse and attacks. These policies can be configured to block or limit requests from specific IP addresses or ranges.
2. Rate limiting and throttling
Rate limiting and throttling are essential features for managing API traffic and ensuring fair usage:
- Rate limiting: APIM allows you to set quotas and rate limits on API calls to prevent abuse and ensure that resources are used efficiently. You can define limits based on various criteria, such as the number of calls per minute or hour.
- Throttling: Throttling policies help manage traffic spikes by temporarily reducing the rate of incoming requests. This ensures that your backend services are not overwhelmed and can continue to operate smoothly.
3. Observability of requests
Observability is crucial for monitoring API performance and diagnosing issues:
- Logging and monitoring: APIM provides detailed logging and monitoring capabilities through Azure Monitor (Application Insights), enabling real-time insights into API usage and performance. Logs can be used to track request and response data, errors, and latency.
- Analytics: Gain insights into API usage patterns, performance metrics, and error rates with built-in analytics tools. These insights help you understand how your APIs are being used and identify areas for improvement.
- Diagnostics: Use application insights to diagnose issues and monitor the health of APIs. Application insights provide end-to-end tracing and live metrics, making it easier to troubleshoot problems and optimise performance.
4. General management
APIM offers comprehensive management capabilities to streamline API operations:
- API gateway: Acts as a facade to backend services, allowing for consistent configuration of routing, security, and observability. The API gateway handles all incoming requests and forwards them to the appropriate backend services.
- Lifecycle management: Supports the complete API lifecycle, from design and implementation to monitoring and versioning. APIM allows you to manage API versions, deprecate old versions, and roll out new features seamlessly.
- OpenAPI support: APIM supports the OpenAPI specification, making it easy to import and publish APIs. You can use OpenAPI definitions to document your APIs and generate client SDKs for various programming languages.
Conclusion
Azure API management stands out as a powerful integration gateway platform, offering robust security features, comprehensive observability, and efficient management capabilities. It enables organisations to securely expose services, monitor API interactions, and manage the entire API lifecycle effectively.
Read more about Azure and API management services.