What is API management? Why API Management?
What are the benefits of using API management?
Do I even need API management for my APIs?
We answer these questions and more on this episode of API Cookery.
Stay tuned to find out more!
Hi! Brenton House here with API Cookery where we talk about everything API because
everything runs on APIs and we want you to be properly equipped in this API world.
If you're new here subscribe to this channel and check out the show notes
in the description below so you can stay up to date with new and informative videos
that will enable you to win and help others as well.
So let's jump into it.
What is API management?
As you start designing, creating, and deploying your APIs you quickly realize
that you are not quite "done" yet.
After your APIs have been published and more and more API clients start consuming your APIs
you find yourself in the position of making a lot of decisions about how (or if) you need:
- to scale your APIs - to secure your APIs
- to analyze usage of your APIs - to configure your APIs
- to rate limit your APIs - and more!
Some of the APIs that you have been creating might be internal APIs while others
are probably public APIs (or APIs that are visible to everyone). APIs that are public
facing might have more requirements and scrutiny because of the visibility that they will have.
If you have just one or two APIs you might not put a lot of thought into some of these
issues when you designed and built them you may have embedded things like security,
logging, configuration, and other features into the actual API code.
But what happens when you start having more and more requirements for APIs.
Especially in this world of microservices where API functionality could be broken
up into smaller APIs that might only have one particular focus or purpose
or what happens when some of the APIs that you need to use are legacy services that you
have neither the desire nor resources to modify in order to make them fit your business requirements.
This is where API management comes in.
API management is the process of:
- Building - Publishing
- Securing - Versioning
- Observing - Scaling
- Cataloging - and even Retiring your APIs
You create an ecosystem that allows you to manage the complete lifecycle of your
APIs so that your organization can focus on adding value to your core business.
A few key components of API management systems are:
1. An API gateway that handles the routing and management for all your APIs
through policies that can be applied to an individual API or a set of APIs.
2. A developer portal which serves as a self-service hub for developers to gain
access to API documentation sdks and other resources needed for consuming your APIs.
3. An API dashboard where you can observe API usage view key API metrics
and manage a variety of API analytics 4. A unified central API catalog
for organizing cataloging indexing and presenting all the public and private
APIs that you use in your organization. By implementing API management, you have also
added flexibility and power to your APIs by going from a situation where you are managing each API
independently, to a unified system where you are orchestrating a complete set of APIs as a product.
To better understand how API management fits into your API journey
you can also take a look at a couple of our other videos.
One I would start off with is the API first episode
where we discuss "What is API First" and how to get started on the right foot.
You can avoid a lot of issues and save a lot of time money and other resources
if you begin your journey by creating your API strategy
by looking at it through the lens of your organization's goals and strategy.
Discover how you can create your APIs as products to add business value to your organization.
I also recommend watching the episode on Full Lifecycle API Management process
as it will help you better understand all the steps that are involved in managing your APIs.
You can also find several videos on API Management training where I've
compiled a mega list of API management training videos and other content
that you can use to be better equipped on your API journey.
You can find all these API best practice videos and more at apishorts.com
I hope this has been beneficial in helping you understand what API management is and
how it can help you add business value to your organization, your products, and your customers!
Feel free to add any comments or questions that you might
have about API management in the comments section below.
I'm Brenton House and thank you for watching API Cookery! Check
out the show notes below for links and bonus content subscribe to this channel
to stay up to date with the ever-changing world of APIs and digital transformation!
What is an API? What is API Management? Why API Management?