How differently API Gateway works with Microservices and Monolith Architecture?

What is an API Gateway?

API Gateway is a service that sits between clients and backend services, acting as a reverse proxy to accept incoming requests from clients, perform various operations such as routing, authentication, and rate limiting, and then forward those requests to the appropriate backend services....

How does API Gateway work?

API Gateway acts as a single entry point for clients to access various microservices or backend services. It abstracts the underlying architecture and provides a unified interface for clients to interact with the system. Here’s how it works:...

How differently API Gateway works with Microservices and Monolith Architecture?

The way an API Gateway works with microservices differs from how it works with a monolithic architecture in several key aspects:...

API Gateway with Microservices Example

Let’s consider a hypothetical e-commerce system with microservices. The system has services for user management, product catalog, shopping cart, and order processing. Clients interact with the system through a web application....

API Gateway with Monolith Example

Consider a traditional e-commerce monolithic application. The API Gateway can still serve as a central entry point and manage authentication, request transformation, caching, and other features....

Best Practices for API Gateway

Below are the best practices for API Gateway:...

Benefits of using an API Gateway

Centralized Entry Point In complex systems with multiple microservices or backend services, clients (e.g., web or mobile applications) typically need to interact with various endpoints to access different functionalities. An API Gateway acts as a single entry point, meaning that clients send their requests to the gateway, and the gateway takes responsibility for routing those requests to the appropriate services. Routing and Load Balancing API Gateways analyze incoming requests and determine which backend service should handle them based on various factors such as the request’s URL, headers, or even the content of the request. Additionally, they can distribute incoming requests evenly across multiple instances of the same service to ensure load balancing. Authentication and Authorization They can enforce authentication, ensuring that only authorized users or applications can access the services behind the gateway. This is typically done using mechanisms like API keys, OAuth tokens, or JWTs. Furthermore, they handle authorization by checking if the authenticated user or application has the necessary permissions to access specific resources. Request and Response Transformation API Gateways can transform requests and responses as they pass through. For example, they can convert data formats (e.g., from JSON to XML or vice versa) to ensure compatibility between different parts of the system. They can also aggregate data from multiple services into a single response, providing clients with a unified view....

Challenges of using an API Gateway

API Gateways can introduce several challenges, especially in complex environments or when not properly configured. Some common challenges include:...

Popular API Gateway Solution

Below are some API Gateway Solution:...

Conclusion

An API Gateway is a central component in system design that helps manage and optimize the communication between clients and backend services. It simplifies client interactions, enhances security, and provides various features for controlling and monitoring API traffic, making it an essential part of modern distributed systems and microservices architectures....