This is the second in a series of articles on Tetrate Enterprise Gateway for Envoy (TEG), the enterprise-ready distribution of Envoy Gateway, the cloud-native service gateway. Get access to TEG today and sign up for our intro to Envoy Gateway webinar ›
Do You Really Need a Sprawling API Management Platform?
Is less more for API gateways? Five years ago, I would have told you that more is more.
Today, I believe that the all-singing-and-dancing API Management and Distribution Platforms are the least likely fit for your architecture. Their inherent complexity and long feature lists appear excessive, as most of us focus on enabling first-party API distribution and consumption within our organizations.
I have concluded that less is more, simplicity is the key, and we are unveiling a shifting solution landscape where gateways catering to the core needs of first-party API distribution and consumption are the right choice for the 80%.
Most API Traffic Is First-Party
Once, we all dreamed of being API-first and offering headless API-only products; however, APIs as revenue-generating stand-alone products are only the reality for some.
The fact is that most API traffic is, to no surprise, first-party API traffic. As we adopt modern service-oriented architectures, we’re seeing the growth of first-party APIs outstrip the growth of second—and third-party APIs. We see apps calling backends, services calling other services, and the backend of an acquired solution making calls “home” to integrate the systems.
As we navigate the realities of large system landscapes, whether through a growing suite of solutions or acquisitions, the challenges we face are becoming increasingly apparent. The task of integrating internal systems effectively and securely is pressing and complex.
Secure and Stable Takes Priority
The most critical challenge is ensuring stable, secure, and monitored connections between systems. The task of addressing interface design standards and existing awkward interfaces, such as outdated SOAP interfaces or complex RESTful APIs, quickly falls outside the top priority list.
Using the 80/20 rule, we can simplify that the current dominating solution landscape, with its all-singing-and-dancing API Management and Distribution Platforms, is only appropriate for 20% of us.
The remaining 80% of us, who are primarily dealing with enabling API distribution and consumption of first-party APIs, are underserved and oversold. Picking a gateway solution that can handle the core, common, and critical functions becomes important, and it shouldn’t be a hard decision to make.
Picking the Right Solution(s)
One of the first solutions you will pick is a gateway, and choosing an Envoy-based gateway is generally your best choice today. Envoy offers advanced load-balancing algorithms, real-time dynamic configuration, extensive support for modern protocols, and built-in support for detailed metrics, among other benefits.
Envoy is the data plane for many gateways and service meshes, making it a proven and reliable choice. Its active community ensures continuous improvement and support.
If you are running in Kubernetes, you can now use Envoy Gateway and configure it with the Kubernetes Gateway API. If you want to learn more about how to use Envoy Gateway check out Tetrate’s webinar on Envoy Gateway by Eitan Suez.
However, if your system mainly consists of microservices running on one or more Kubernetes clusters, you might consider using an Envoy-based service mesh, like Istio. The service mesh is great for service-to-service communication, but a combination of gateways and load-balancers is still likely a part of your architecture to enable API access from scripts, web apps, and other API-driven integrations. We’ve discussed when you need a gateway vs. a service mesh in detail here.
In conclusion, picking a robust and feature-rich gateway like Envoy to cover the 80% case of exposing our APIs is likely a great choice.
Learn More
- Sign up for our intro to Envoy Gateway webinar ›
- Which do I need? A gateway or a service mesh?
- What Envoy Gateway can do for you ›
- Why the Gateway API is the unified future for Kubernetes ingress ›
###
If you’re new to service mesh, Tetrate has a bunch of free online courses available at Tetrate Academy that will quickly get you up to speed with Istio and Envoy.
Are you using Kubernetes? Tetrate Enterprise Gateway for Envoy (TEG) is the easiest way to get started with Envoy Gateway for production use cases. Get the power of Envoy Proxy in an easy-to-consume package managed by the Kubernetes Gateway API. Learn more ›
Getting started with Istio? If you’re looking for the surest way to get to production with Istio, check out Tetrate Istio Subscription. Tetrate Istio Subscription has everything you need to run Istio and Envoy in highly regulated and mission-critical production environments. It includes Tetrate Istio Distro, a 100% upstream distribution of Istio and Envoy that is FIPS-verified and FedRAMP ready. For teams requiring open source Istio and Envoy without proprietary vendor dependencies, Tetrate offers the ONLY 100% upstream Istio enterprise support offering.
Need global visibility for Istio? TIS+ is a hosted Day 2 operations solution for Istio designed to simplify and enhance the workflows of platform and support teams. Key features include: a global service dashboard, multi-cluster visibility, service topology visualization, and workspace-based access control.
Get a Demo