Zuul proxy as the API gateway
In most microservice implementations, internal microservice endpoints are not exposed outside. They are kept as private services. A set of public services will be exposed to the clients using an API gateway. There are many reasons to do this:
Only a selected set of microservices are required by the clients.
If there are client-specific policies to be applied, it is easy to apply them in a single place rather than in multiple places. An example of such a scenario is the cross-origin access policy.
It is hard to implement client-specific transformations at the service endpoint.
If there is data aggregation required, especially to avoid multiple client calls in a bandwidth-restricted environment, then a gateway is required in the middle.
Zuul is a simple gateway service or edge service that suits these situations well. Zuul also comes from the Netflix family of microservice products. Unlike many enterprise API gateway products, Zuul provides complete control for the...
