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API Gateway Best Practices: Optimize Your Microservices π
Introduction
An API Gateway is the single entry point for managing requests in a microservices architecture. It handles authentication, rate limiting, logging, and request routing. In this article, we will explore the best practices to optimize your API Gateway for high performance, security, and scalability.
What is an API Gateway?
An API Gateway acts as an intermediary between clients and backend services. It simplifies communication by providing:
- Authentication & Authorization π
- Rate Limiting & Throttling β³
- Load Balancing βοΈ
- Request & Response Transformation π
- Caching & Logging π
Popular API Gateway solutions include Kong, NGINX, Spring Cloud Gateway, and AWS API Gateway.
Common API Gateway Challenges π¨
β High Latency: Poor request handling can slow down response times.
β Security Risks: Improper authentication exposes vulnerabilities.
β Scalability Issues: Increased traffic can overwhelm the gateway.