API-based integration

Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are at the heart of digital transformation, enabling the agility and openness required for rapidly interconnecting solutions. After all, they constitute a facet for data to be exposed and consumed between different layers of an enterprise’s IT estate, or between applications of different entities. Therefore, a crucial design principle for APIs is to reduce complexity for the sake of convenience while acting as a contract between the provider and the consumer. This is similar to your mobile phone hiding the complexity of an entire telecommunications mechanism behind a simple call button. When using your mobile phone, you abide by the implicit contract and use this interface to make the call.

Considering the significant role of APIs, it is inevitable for a provider to have a control layer between the APIs and their consumers. This is why APIM solutions emerged in the IT world. This gatekeeping layer controls access...