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What is API gateway?
This is an API management tool that sits between the clients and the backend service groups, often referred to as “gateway” acting as an intermediary.
Besides, API gateway is also the only gateway to the microservices system.
Acting as a reverse proxy, it accepts all API calls from the client side, editing, validating, fetching and aggregating compatible resources before sending a specific response to each request.
In addition to the above task, API gateway also often takes on a few other roles such as API security, monitoring and statistics of the number of requests with the status of the system behind.
It can be commented that API gateway has become a familiar and important element in sustainable modern application development.
API gateways remove the underlying complexity of a service and help modern organizations innovate quickly, thereby becoming more agile.
Components of API gateway
An API gateway system will typically include the following components:
- Security.
- Caching.
- API composition and processing.
- Managing access quotas.
- API health monitoring.
- Versioning.
- Routing.
Benefits of using API gateway
The most important element of an API gateway is its ability to encapsulate structure of application itself.
That is the structure of the microservice is always “hidden” from the outside, ie the client side will interact on the system through the API gateway, not directly call a specific service.
This also makes the frontend code cleaner because don't have to track too many endpoints on each service, especially when the system is increasingly “blooming”.
Besides, using API gateway also helps:
- Reduces the number of roundtrips between the client and the application.
- Manage and monitor traffic more easily with the GUI or through the APIs of the gateway system.
- Simplify client-side source code.
- Request caching and also play the role of load balancer, limiting the risk of the system being overloaded.
- Adding an extra layer of security to the system, preventing attacks like DDoS and SQL injections...
- The application becomes more efficient and fewer errors.
- Able to replace authentication services, save time and make the system simple.
- Analyze and statistics where the requests come from.
- Support developers to debug when the system crashes.
