Over the last few years, APIs have evolved based on advances in technology and business innovation, that has enabled conceptualizing and delivering core business functions as discreet, consumable entities. <!?more?>The API architecture has also evolved over the years, building on the foundation of service-oriented architecture (SOA), and paving the way for producing and exposing APIs as a channel to extend the reach of your products or services to new customers and markets.
As the number of Business APIs increase in an enterprise, along with consumption and complexity, the need for managing and governing the APIs, monitoring their performance and usage analytics also increases, and that forms the basis for need for an effective API Management platform.
API Management
An API Management Platform typically consists of the following key components:
- An API Manager component, which provides the solution for managing the lifecycle of APIs and its governance;
- An API Gateway component, which provides the solution to enable secure access to APIs and its integration. It is typically implemented by an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB);
- And an API Analytics component, which provides the solution for monitoring API usage, and performance against SLAs.
SOA Governance
API Management is a natural extension of SOA Governance. While SOA Governance shields the service consumer from changes in the backend applications, API Management protects the service provider from frequent churn in the needs of omni-channel front-end solutions that consume APIs. You can leverage your SOA investments when implementing an API Management strategy and solution. By effectively converging API Management and SOA governance together, organizations can dramatically increase the overall effectiveness of enterprise innovation and deliver scalable, reliable and customer-centric business capabilities.
