Constant changes in market needs require organizations to quickly provide new services in order to generate or keep competitive advantages. In this context, one of the most successful tactics is to combine solutions with third-party services already in operation. For instance, if part of the scope of a new offer requires the geographic location of a user or an item to be delivered, such service can address the location issue by using Google Maps. This approach greatly reduces the effort and time-to-market for a new solution. Currently, like Google Maps, thousands of other services are provided on the internet, such as biometrics, machine learning and deep learning algorithms, music, movies, etc.
In this manner, the easy cloud integration of services provided on the internet is very beneficial and necessary. Exposing an Application Programing Interface, or API, is the easiest and most common way to integrate with a cloud-based service. Service providers create an API Gateway so that other platforms use it through internet. In this scenario, many legacy systems have been rewritten to be provided as services on the internet as well.
In addition to the benefits, the supplier must professionally manage the operation of these API Gateways, especially when used on a large scale: traffic monitoring, information security, connection control, protection against unauthorized access, performance monitoring, resource management, continuity monitoring, among others.
Specific platforms support this important task of managing APIs. According to the latest Gartner survey, the Kong platform was the leader in the magic quadrant for “Full Lifecycle API Management”. This indication is very significant for cloud-based software provision and development and classifies Kong as the most complete platform according to the market needs, as well as for the implementation, maintenance and operation of API Gateways.
As an applied market example, Opus Software, a Kong’s partner, manages the API Gateway of the Opus Open Finance, a solution acceleration platform for the financial sector, through the Kong platform. The Opus Open Finance Platform dramatically accelerates the customer journey in providing digital financial services on a large scale, meets the needs of Open Banking, and integrates these new services with internal legacy services. The Opus Open Finance Platform, built on the microservice architecture, exposes an API Gateway for integration and uses Kong platform to manage APIs to ensure good monitoring, performance and availability, among others.
In addition, we have been supporting the implementation of different versions and configurations of the Kong platform in our clients’ projects, for which API management is a demand.
Gartner’s announcement about the Kong Platform is excellent news for software development, as it further protects the adoption of a simple, highly scalable solution, which is easy to install and maintain, in addition to ensuring strong, professional governance and management for providing cloud-based applications.
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