Developers use a sophisticated network of microservices to orchestrate contemporary corporate systems. The complexity of orchestration grows in lockstep with the number of apps and microservices deployed. Reusable APIs solve the complexity problem by allowing numerous apps to rely on a small number of separate microservices that provide their domain’s data and functionalities.

In large businesses, API sprawl is a constant problem. Architects frequently report that their businesses have hundreds of APIs, many of which are unknown to internal teams. Because of the lack of visibility, teams end up building even more duplicate APIs, compounding the situation. Because the extent of the API sprawl problem varies, establishing multiple APIs may not be a problem for small businesses with a limited number of apps, services, and databases. Custom API development, on the other hand, might take a lot of time and work for a large business. Managing APIs becomes more challenging as the number of APIs grows, introducing various databases that do not support interoperability, and cross-cutting issues and organizational rules such as security, logging, and monitoring are difficult to apply consistently. It’s vital to remember that reusable APIs support several applications at the same time, thus each one is crucial to the organization’s operations. To minimize service interruptions, the API platform must be extremely scalable and performant.

Kong is an OpenSupply API platform that acts as a middleware for compute clients and APIs. Kong platform comes with a lot of plugins to help you easily upgrade your API skills. In addition, operational teams and product owners can use Kong to build self-service portals for developers interested in using APIs, maintaining software, and registering non-API developers. Based on your host, you can choose the best gateway runtime in your APIs and leverage the power and scale of Kong to manage your services. Each Kong runtime consists of two main components: Control Plane: The control plane allows operators to define routes, telemetry, and rules such as authentication, routing, and rate limiting. Data plane: The data plane controls the availability of the parent APIs according to the rules defined in the control plane. The data plane is responsible for network traffic routing, policy enforcement, and the transfer of telemetry data.