What I see the API Gateway providing:
- a registry of APIs ala UDDI, with equally sparse
descriptions
- messaging middleware that was repackaged for ESBs
and can be repackaged again
- integrated monitoring that is necessary if you can
manage to figure out what to monitor and what to do with the
data you gather
- a central point for security that hopefully will
be consistently applied and maintained.
Vendors are marketing single API Gateway products
that bundle the things you need but often have terrible
discussions of what you need to build and where is real value
vs. recycled jargon.
Major point is an API is an interface description
and, much as we tried to get across in the SOA RM when we
distinguished between the underlying capability and the access
to that capability, without the capability, there is no service.
An interface to nothing is nothing, and usually an expensive
nothing.
Ken
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Kenneth
Laskey
MITRE
Corporation, M/S F510
phone: 703-983-7934
7515 Colshire
Drive fax: 703-983-1379
McLean VA
22102-7508
Ken, Rex, Mike, and all-- Didn't
get a chance to bring this up today but maybe we can
discuss next time . ..
This was also partly in response to Mike's
comment that he believes that in Microservices API
interfaces are typically/often exposed directly to
end-users vs only to other MS components within an
application container.
Martin
--
Martin F Smith, Principal
BFC
Consulting, LLC
McLean, Va 22102
703 506-0159
703 389-3224
mobile