API Management World
API Management:

Is the process of creating and publishing web application programming interfaces (APIs), enforcing their usage policies, controlling access, nurturing the subscriber community, collecting and analyzing usage statistics, and reporting on performance. API Management components provide mechanisms and tools to support the developer and subscriber.

What can API management do for you?

API management is largely about centralizing control of your API program — including analytics, access control, monetization, and developer workflows. An API management solution provides dependability, flexibility, quality, and speed. To achieve these goals, and ensure that both public and internal APIs are consumable and secure, an API management solution should provide access control, rate limits, and usage policies at the minimum. Most API management solutions generally also include the following capabilities:

1- developer portal. A developer portal is a common best-practice for API management. Developer portals typically provide API documentation along with developer onboarding processes like signup and account administration. 2- API gateway. The API gateway is the single point-of-entry for all clients. The gateway also determines how clients interact with APIs through the use of policies. 3- API lifecycle management. APIs should be manageable from design, through implementation, until retirement. 4- Analytics. It’s important to know what’s going on with your APIs — which consumer or app is calling which API and how often. It’s also essential to know how many APIs have failed and why. 5- Support for API monetization. Monetize access to the microservices behind the APIs through usage contracts. API management allows you to define usage contracts based on metrics, like the number of API calls. Consumers can be segmented and differentiated access tiers, and service quality can be offered to different segments.

These capabilities are considered during the API’s design so that the API can use self-managed or cloud components to provide traffic control, security, and access policy enforcement. Well, designed APIs can be shared, secured, distributed, controlled, and monetized on an infrastructure platform built for performance, customer control, and future growth.
['Abdulmohsen Alenazi']
['Systems Thinking', 'APIs', 'Innovation', 'Tools', 'Integration']