Share this
How To Build Scalable, Resilient API Architectures with Apigee
by Crystalloids Team on Nov 25, 2024 2:30:54 PM
APIs are at the heart of business growth and innovation today. Even during times of disruption, companies have continued to prioritize digital transformation. In fact, according to Google Cloud's "State of API Economy 2021" report, 75% of companies maintained their digital transformation efforts, with almost two-thirds increasing their investments. This tells us just how crucial APIs have become in supporting modern businesses.
To stay competitive, APIs need to be scalable, resilient, and reliable. When APIs automatically adjust to changes in demand, businesses can deliver a smooth customer experience, even during peak periods, while minimizing the risk of downtime and keeping costs in check. When APIs are available and performing well, it not only keeps customers happy but also helps improve brand reputation and fuel business growth.
At Crystalloids, we build API architectures that are resilient, scalable, and easy to maintain. In this blog, we’ll show you how we leverage Google Cloud Apigee, Load Balancer, and Cloud Run to create high-performance APIs that drive business growth.
Our Approach to Scalability
We design distributed, multi-regional API architectures using Apigee. This setup ensures that our APIs are always available, have low latency, and can handle regional outages seamlessly.
Using Google Cloud Load Balancer, we direct incoming requests to the nearest Apigee instance, which helps reduce latency and efficiently manage traffic.
Entire lifecycle of HTTP request going through Apigee
Tackling Core Challenges
Managing traffic between Apigee and backend services is a common challenge. While Google Cloud Load Balancer handles routing to Apigee, Apigee itself needs to balance traffic to the backend services effectively.
We use Apigee's built-in load-balancing features to handle unexpected traffic spikes and regional incidents smoothly, ensuring high availability.
We also ensure that all Apigee instances and backend servers can auto-scale to handle traffic efficiently, keeping performance consistent even during peak times.
Auto-Scaling for Traffic Management
Our architecture heavily relies on auto-scaling to keep systems stable and efficient during traffic surges. Apigee instances and backend services can scale up or down as needed, allowing the architecture to adapt to changing loads and maintain optimal performance.
Scalable Backends with Cloud Run
To make our backend services scalable, we use Google Cloud Run.
Cloud Run supports autoscaling based on CPU usage and can adjust the number of instances based on demand. This allows our backend to grow with user needs, without compromising performance.
Caching and Load Balancing
Caching is a great way to improve efficiency, especially when backend responses don’t change often. We use Apigee's caching features to store responses, reducing the load on backend services and improving response times.
Security Considerations
Security is a core part of building scalable APIs. For those unfamiliar, OAuth 2.0 is a framework that allows secure, delegated access, meaning users can grant websites or applications limited access to their information without sharing passwords.
API keys are unique identifiers used to authenticate requests, and role-based access control ensures that only authorized users can access certain resources. Rate limits are also set to control the number of requests a client can make, preventing abuse and ensuring that services remain responsive for all users.
In Apigee, we use OAuth 2.0, API keys, and role-based access control to protect data and prevent unauthorized access. Apigee also helps enforce rate limits, validate requests, and encrypt data, making our API infrastructure secure and compliant.
Monitoring and Observability
Monitoring keeps APIs resilient. Apigee provides analytics to track API performance and troubleshoot issues in real-time. We also use Google Cloud’s monitoring tools to get visibility into the health of the entire API ecosystem, helping us quickly identify and resolve any problems.
Integrating Google Cloud Apigee into our DevOps pipeline has brought significant benefits, particularly in enhancing security, ensuring consistency, and improving control. Learn how we achieved this, the challenges we faced, and the benefits gained.
Best Practices for Scalable API Architectures
To build a successful API architecture, we focus on three main components:
1. Load Balancer
The Load Balancer directs traffic to Apigee, ensuring consistent performance and secure communication. It prevents bottlenecks by distributing incoming traffic evenly.
2. Apigee
Apigee, Google Cloud's API management platform, has been recognized as a Leader in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for API Management for the ninth consecutive time.
This consistent recognition highlights Apigee's robust capabilities in building and managing scalable, resilient API architectures.
Apigee acts as the gateway for managing APIs. It helps route, scale, and monitor traffic effectively. Choosing the right Apigee environment (development, testing, or production) is crucial for achieving the best performance.
3. Backend Servers
Our backend servers use Google Cloud’s Cloud Run to handle fluctuating loads efficiently. This setup ensures they can scale automatically, maintaining high availability even during traffic surges.
Final Thoughts
At Crystalloids, we leverage Google Cloud technologies like Apigee, Load Balancer, and Cloud Run to build scalable and resilient API architectures. Our approach helps companies stay competitive by ensuring that their APIs are ready for growth and can handle today’s challenges while preparing for tomorrow.
If you need help building scalable API architectures, contact Crystalloids. We’d love to help you achieve your technology goals and take your data strategy to the next level.
Share this
- November 2024 (5)
- October 2024 (2)
- September 2024 (1)
- August 2024 (1)
- July 2024 (4)
- June 2024 (2)
- May 2024 (1)
- April 2024 (4)
- March 2024 (2)
- February 2024 (2)
- January 2024 (4)
- December 2023 (1)
- November 2023 (4)
- October 2023 (4)
- September 2023 (4)
- June 2023 (2)
- May 2023 (2)
- April 2023 (1)
- March 2023 (1)
- January 2023 (4)
- December 2022 (3)
- November 2022 (5)
- October 2022 (3)
- July 2022 (1)
- May 2022 (2)
- April 2022 (2)
- March 2022 (5)
- February 2022 (3)
- January 2022 (5)
- December 2021 (5)
- November 2021 (4)
- October 2021 (2)
- September 2021 (2)
- August 2021 (3)
- July 2021 (4)
- May 2021 (2)
- April 2021 (2)
- February 2021 (2)
- January 2021 (1)
- December 2020 (1)
- October 2020 (2)
- September 2020 (1)
- August 2020 (2)
- July 2020 (2)
- June 2020 (1)
- March 2020 (2)
- February 2020 (1)
- January 2020 (1)
- December 2019 (1)
- November 2019 (3)
- October 2019 (2)
- September 2019 (3)
- August 2019 (2)
- July 2019 (3)
- June 2019 (5)
- May 2019 (2)
- April 2019 (4)
- March 2019 (2)
- February 2019 (2)
- January 2019 (4)
- December 2018 (2)
- November 2018 (2)
- October 2018 (1)
- September 2018 (2)
- August 2018 (3)
- July 2018 (3)
- May 2018 (2)
- April 2018 (4)
- March 2018 (5)
- February 2018 (2)
- January 2018 (3)
- November 2017 (2)
- October 2017 (2)