The Apigee APIM Operator, a new product that adds lightweight Application Programming Interface Management and API Gateway capabilities to your GKE environment, is now generally available. An important milestone in it’s plan to make Apigee available for API administration on any gateway, anywhere, is this release.
The Apigee APIM Operator for Kubernetes lets you develop and operate API products using Kubernetes. It helps cloud-native developers by providing a command-line interface for Kubernetes tools like kubectl. To maintain your Google Kubernetes Engine cluster in sync with the Apigee runtime, the operator uses a variety of APIM resources.
Advantages
The APIM Operator can help your company by offering:
Simplified API Management: API producers may use Kubernetes resource definitions to manage and protect their APIs with the help of the APIM Operator. The same tools and procedures that you use to manage other Kubernetes resources may also be used to manage your APIs.
Streamlined Networking: By enforcing API regulations at the load balancer level, the operator simplifies networking configuration and lowers the complexity of controlling API security and access.
Fine-grained access control: Fine-grained access control for a variety of roles, such as platform administrators, infrastructure administrators, and API developers, is made possible by integrating Kubernetes’ role-based access control (RBAC) with Apigee custom resource definitions.
Integration with Kubernetes: The operator offers cloud-native developers a smooth experience by integrating with native Kubernetes concepts like Helm charts and Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs).
Reduced Context Switching: The APIM Operator eliminates the need for developers to transition between tools and interfaces by providing API administration straight from the Kubernetes environment.
When to use APIM Operator
API producers that wish to use Kubernetes capabilities to manage their APIs are intended to use the APIM Operator. Cloud-native developers who are used to Kubernetes and wish to manage their APIs using the same tools and processes as other Kubernetes resources will find it particularly helpful. Through the APIM Operator, current Apigee clients may add Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF)-based capabilities to their API management architecture.
limitations
The APIM Operator’s Public Preview release is subject to the following restrictions:
- There is just support for REST APIs. The Public Preview version does not support GraphQL or gRPC.
- The Public Preview edition supports up to 25 regional or global GKE Gateway resources with associated API management policies.
- A single environment may have up to 25 APIM extension policies applied to it. You need to construct a new environment in order to add more APIM extension policies.
- HTTPRoutes cannot have API management policies connected to them; only Gateway resources may.
- The Public Preview release does not support region extension. The APIM Operator cannot be extended to other areas after it has been setup.
What does this mean for you?
Developer-Native Tooling: With Kubernetes-like YAML, you can now configure API management for the numerous cloud-native companies that use CNCF-standardized tooling, doing away with the need to move between tools.
Reduced Friction: Google Cloud is lowering the conceptual and operational complexity for platform administrators and service developers by integrating APIM with Kubernetes and CNCF toolchains.
Policy Management: Using RBAC, administrators may develop APIM template rules that let various groups employ different sets of policies according to their requirements. A similar degree of capability to Apigee Hybrid may be attained by users and administrators by adding different Apigee rules to APIM templates.
Key Features and Capabilities
Through a traffic extension (ext-proc callout), the GA version allows users to set up a GKE cluster and GKE Gateway to utilise an Apigee Hybrid instance for API administration. It also supports factory-built defaults for Day-Zero with workload customisation and manages the API lifetime with YAML-based rules that are run via the Kubernetes/CNCF toolchain.
Addressing Customer Needs
The increasing need for developer-friendly tools that make managing APIs easier is met by this functionality. Apigee was viewed as less agile due to its perceived complexity and the need to migrate from Kubectl to alternative tools. In response to this input, Google cloud developed the APIM Operator, which offers a more simplified and effective method of managing APIs.
Looking Ahead
It is investigating possible future improvements, including gRPC and GraphQL support, to support a greater variety of API types, building on the solid basis of this GA version. As additional features and support become available, it will keep the community informed. Google Cloud is also considering solutions to the existing restrictions on the quantity of Gateway resources and policy attachments.
The APIM Operator, in their opinion, will greatly enhance the developer experience and simplify API maintenance for clients. It can’t wait to see how creatively you develop and implement your apps using this functionality.
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