Demystifying API Gateways

TLDRAPI gateways are a common design pattern used to expose internal APIs to the external world. They provide benefits like authorization, request transformation, validation, and load balancing.

Key insights

🔑API gateways sit between client devices and internal microservices, extracting common logic and providing security.

🔒API gateways handle authorization and authentication, determining if a user is allowed to make a request.

🔄API gateways can transform and massage request data to meet the specific requirements of each internal microservice.

✔️API gateways perform validation on incoming requests to ensure they are correct.

⚖️API gateways can handle load balancing to distribute requests across multiple instances of a microservice.

Q&A

Where does the API gateway sit in the architecture?

The API gateway sits between client devices and internal microservices, acting as a middle layer.

What are the benefits of using an API gateway?

API gateways provide benefits like authorization, request transformation, validation, and load balancing.

Do API gateways handle authentication?

Yes, API gateways handle authentication and authorization, ensuring that only authorized users can make requests.

Can API gateways transform request data?

Yes, API gateways can transform and massage request data to meet the specific requirements of each internal microservice.

How do API gateways handle load balancing?

API gateways can distribute requests across multiple instances of a microservice to ensure optimal performance.

Timestamped Summary

00:00API gateways are a common design pattern used to expose internal APIs to the external world.

00:35API gateways sit between client devices and internal microservices, extracting common logic and providing security.

01:03API gateways handle authorization and authentication, determining if a user is allowed to make a request.

01:32API gateways can transform and massage request data to meet the specific requirements of each internal microservice.

02:12API gateways perform validation on incoming requests to ensure they are correct.

02:45API gateways can handle load balancing to distribute requests across multiple instances of a microservice.