Product introduction

API Gateway is a fully managed service for the complete API lifecycle, from design, development, and testing to publishing, sales, operations and maintenance (O&M), monitoring, security control, and unpublishing.

• Centralized API management across heterogeneous environments. API Gateway acts as a unified control plane for APIs across your backend systems, whether they run on Alibaba Cloud, in on-premises data centers, or in third-party clouds. It integrates with Elastic Compute Service (ECS), Function Compute, and microservices clusters, and supports data and AI scenarios:

  • Heterogeneous network environments: manage APIs from any backend, whether on Alibaba Cloud, on-premises, or third-party clouds.

  • Flexible backend integration: connect services built on ECS, Function Compute, or microservices.

  • Data as a service: publish data APIs for customers using Alibaba Cloud big data and database services, including DataWorks, Dataphin, and Data Management (DMS).

  • AI capabilities: expose models and algorithms built on Machine Learning Platform for AI (PAI) as callable APIs for other business systems.

  • Data visualization: call APIs published through API Gateway from DataV to render data on dashboards and UIs.

• Support for modern architecture patterns. API Gateway integrates with common cloud-native architectures:

  • Serverless: pair Function Compute with API Gateway to build low-cost, highly available, and auto-scaling backend services. This pattern suits mobile, web, Internet of Things (IoT), and cloud marketplace workloads.

  • Microservices: use API Gateway as the entry point for Kubernetes application clusters, following the standard architecture for large-scale internet applications.

  • Front-end/back-end separation: in large-scale separated architectures, API Gateway handles authentication, scheduling, and routing, with clustered deployment to meet high-traffic performance requirements.

• Partner and ecosystem integration. Expose APIs to upstream and downstream partners to streamline coordination and build an open business ecosystem.

• Real-time monitoring and troubleshooting. API monitoring dashboards provide a real-time view of API service behavior, making it straightforward to identify and resolve issues.

• API marketplace and innovation. Publish algorithms, capabilities, and data as APIs on Alibaba Cloud Marketplace to enable new business models. Enterprises can also integrate third-party API services to share capabilities and focus on core business.

• Isolated and multi-tenant security models. Dedicated instances provide an exclusive environment. Serverless instances use a shared-resource, multi-tenant model with full tenant isolation.