Centralized Access
- Simplifying Client Interaction: By providing a single entry point, API gateways reduce the complexity of managing multiple endpoints for clients. Clients only need to interact with the gateway, which then forwards requests to the appropriate services.
- Decoupling Clients and Services: API gateways decouple clients from individual services, allowing services to evolve independently without affecting clients.
Why do we need API gateway?
An API gateway is a server that acts as an intermediary between clients (such as mobile apps or websites) and backend services (such as databases or other services). It is a key component in microservices architecture, providing a single point of entry for clients to access multiple services.
The API gateway handles all the tasks related to accepting and processing incoming requests, such as routing requests to the appropriate service, performing authentication and authorization, enforcing rate limits, and aggregating responses from multiple services.
Let’s understand why we need an API gateway: