Build Scalable API with Apigee by Google in 5 mins-Part 1
Client: Hey Engineer, i read your profile on LinkedIn and am quiet impressed. Can you build a web and mobile app for my startup company?
Software Developer: Oh Thanks! Do you have an existing web service or database for your startup?
Client: Ehm….No.We need to launch in 3 weeks time, but we don’t have our product ready. Is there a way you can fast track the whole development for us, such that in 3 weeks we have our app ready and also the API?
Software Developer: Wow, that timeframe is pretty short, this is close to impossible for me. Usually, API development takes about a month and I need another extra month for the mobile app development. That makes a total of 2 month for the entire project.
Client: Oh my!! are you kidding????? Our investors will rip us apart!!!
You see, companies and Developers today want to make their backend services available on the internet so that these services can be consumed by apps running on mobile devices and desktops in the shortest time possible. A client tells you I want it done NOW!!! what comes to your mind first?
For someone like me, whenever i want to build a project, web and mobile app for instance, I start from the bottom, the API development. Truth be told, this can be time consuming if the project is on a large scale, however, your API is the soul of your entire project, if not handled properly, you might end up dumping it in a trash can!!
This is an ideal API(Application Programming Interface) system
There are 4 major considerations for me when am building web services for client apps.
- Security — How will I control access to my services to prevent unauthorized access? — — This is core!!!
- Compatibility — Will my services work across different platforms and devices?
- Measurability — How can I monitor my services to make sure they are available 24/7?
- Monetization — How can i track and bill customers for access to my services?
How will you build an API that would adopt all of these in 5mins?
Great Question!!!
Here is a good news for you!!!!!
drum rolling………
Apigee empowers you with all you need to build a great and scalable API with little effort!!!
I love Apigee platform for 5 major reasons…
- Manage your API anywhere: Apigee is a full lifecycle API management platform that enables API providers to design, secure, deploy, monitor, and scale APIs. Apigee sits in-line with runtime API traffic and enforces a set of out-of-the-box API policies, including key validation, quota management, transformation, authorization, and access control. API providers use the customizable developer portal to enable developers to consume APIs easily and securely, and to measure API performance and usage.
- Deploy modern APIs in a few clicks: You can easily create API proxies from the Open API Specification and deploy them in the cloud. Transform your SOAP services into scalable REST APIs with out-of-the-box policies. Deploy and run your APIs where your apps are, but manage them centrally.
- Protect your APIs: Secure against OWASP threats with out-of-the-box threat protection policies. Protect data in transit with OAuth 2.0, SAML, two-way TLS, and data at rest with encryption. Protect against traffic spikes with dynamic routing, caching, and rate-limiting policies.
- Empower your developers: Publish your APIs to a fully configurable developer portal and enable app developers to easily get API keys and get started consuming your APIs. Create different tiers of offerings by packaging APIs into API products with varying rate limits and pricing.
- Measure performance and usage: Identify performance issues by tracking your API traffic, response times, and error rates. Gain insights into usage by tracking active developers and apps and the associated revenue metrics.
Do you need 5–6 years programming experience to use Apigee? NO
How long does it take to get started with Apigee? less than 5 mins
With Apigee, you can focus on client apps while it saves you the hassle of API development.
In my next article, i will share with you a project i set up on Apigee platform in 5 mins. You will learn how you can setup a basic and more complex API on this platform.
Are you ready for this??????
