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Reviews (1-2 of 2)
August 09, 2019
The color of money is Azure (API Management)
We are lightly managing and pushing out a few APIs to internal customers using Azure API Management. We are exploring pushing them out to a few of our external partners, but have not done so yet. It is a small catalog of APIs we are managing, but they work well and are easier to keep track of with this tool. It helps keep our policies in order and therefore users know what to expect.
- The policy management process is very good. Without solid policies, you run the risk of poor performance or miscommunications. We’ve been very successful with our API catalog as long as we maintain solid policies.
- Along with the policies, the security is very easy to manage, and you can control things from a simple Azure dashboard, including groups and levels.
- The seamless connection to Azure App Service and Service Fabric is a great bonus, as everything is kept within an easy to manage portal with a common look and feel.
- Lack of robustness is a bit of an issue. Several other providers offer more options and capabilities, but then, they are lacking in interface ease.
- As with anything Azure, pricing is really hard to stay on top of. I always find that you really don’t know what you’re paying for until you get the bill. Having an excellent Azure Administrator can help resolve that.
- Integrating with app services outside of Azure can be a challenge, or at least much more challenging than just using Azure App Services.
API Management is being used to externalize, modernize, and secure our API set. As part of our strategy to open up and integrate more with our clients and patients we chose to leverage API Management as our main gateway to health data and submission of orders. API management takes away a lot of the headaches associated with externalizing web services and API sets. Things like versioning, enabling both XML and JSON even though the back-end service is only XML, providing a developer portal and subscription keys... there is a lot more that makes this well worth the costs.
- Developer portal - while a little rough around the edges, it works well and provides a tidy UI for externalizing your APIs. Developers can register themselves and request and manage subscriptions to products/APIs. The site is customizable too - though that process is a little cumbersome. The sign-up process even has customizable email templates for verification.
- Flexible - there are a lot of customizations that are possible through the use of API policies. This could be transforming XML to JSON or vice versa, modifying headers, restricting parameters, redirecting to different end-points depending on the message body... the sky is the limit as to what you can do.
- Management - the structure of how APIs are managed is well thought-out. It makes it quick to start standing up new APIs and versioning them. Additionally, the analytics provided are also very helpful in diagnosing possible bottlenecks or unusual usage.
- Cost - the upfront cost is a bit restrictive. I've been told it is because there are a few underlying VMs that are running this service. So if you're just starting out with API management, it can be an expensive proposition. Value increases as you add additional APIs. If you're using Azure B2C for the developer portal, you'll require Standard or Premium since they support AAD integration.
- Security granularity - at time of writing, APIM doesn't support breaking out operations to products. For example, if you have an API that has a GET and a POST operation, and you want the POST operation to require a different subscription. There is a work around, but it makes management a bit messy.
- Developer and Publisher portal - it's a little weird. Microsoft hasn't migrated all the publisher portal functionality into the "native" Azure portal. So some of it feels a little weird - especially when working with the content management side of things for the developer portal.
- Scaling - while it's easy to scale up, the cost of APIM ramps up very quickly. Standard -> Premium is a 4x jump.
Azure API Management Scorecard Summary
Feature Scorecard Summary
About Azure API Management
Microsoft's Azure API Management supports creation of API.
Categories: API Management
Azure API Management Technical Details
| Operating Systems: | Unspecified |
|---|---|
| Mobile Application: | No |