How API and Microservice connectivity will change What is happening in the API world in 2022
17.01.2022A guest comment by * Sven Walther
The increasing use of programming interfaces requires an innovative, ideally automated management of the API life cycle. Sven Walther, Principal Solutions Engineer EMEA at Kong, explains which API developments can be expected in the DACH region in 2022.
Related companies
Sven Walther: “The mega-trend that everything has to be automated in IT and software development is intensifying.“
(© 2020 Mark Skalny/Mark Skalny Photography)
Over the past 20 years, application programming interfaces (APIs) have become a critical part of modern life. These pieces of code enable the smooth flow of data between different systems and connect applications and databases in a variety of ways. But the technology is making ever greater progress and the use cases are becoming more and more mature, which is why adaptation is also necessary here.
Currently, IT relies on too many manual processes, complex steps, and costly activities to build the APIs that will power the new digital experiences. However, organizations are stepping up efforts to build effective management of the API lifecycle, which includes planning, development, implementation, testing and versioning.
As everywhere in IT, automation is on the rise here as well. Kong’s vision is plug-and-play solutions that make the use and availability of API and microservice connectivity as easy as using electricity from a power outlet. In the following, therefore
1. Breakthrough for the fully automated publishing of microservices – from the specification phase to publication and documentation
DevOps and GitOps have become widely accepted for agile software development. The mega trend that everything in IT and software development must also be automated is intensifying. This applies above all to the process of APIOps, which deals holistically with the automated creation, validation, publication and documentation. Conversely, this means that in 2022 no one should have to deal with manual processes for managing an API Gateway or Developer portal. This ensures speed and agility and gives the developers and operators the much-needed time to optimize the development of time-to-market.
2. Service mesh makes the leap from niche to wide use
Thanks to ZeroTrust and Governance, Service Mesh took the first steps in the internal networks in 2021 from a much–discussed, future–oriented hype topic to real implementation at the enterprise level. This trend is currently accelerating very strongly. It is foreseeable that the big step from a niche technology to a comprehensively used best practice will be taken in the coming year. Service mesh is already an important and much discussed topic for top companies from Germany, Switzerland and Austria when it comes to the implementation of a central service mesh at Group level, which will start in 2022.
3. Accelerated replacement of standard concepts such as load balancers
With microservices, DevOps and CI/CD, which are accepted as modern concepts for development and implemented as best practice, new challenges and new opportunities arise. At the same time, technologies that are considered set are being replaced by new ones: technologies that fit perfectly into a centralized IT structure for many years now have to be questioned in an increasingly fragmented microservices and multi-cloud infrastructure. Otherwise, they threaten to become the new brake block for agile software development.
In the coming year, the next big change will take place away from the classic, central load balancers, which cause unnecessary latencies and single-point-of-failure, especially in service-to-service communication. This is precisely where a switch to ZeroLB with service mesh-based load balancing takes place in direct communication between the services.
4. The complex setup of your own data centers, various cloud providers and availability zones comes together again in an enterprise-wide network
Topics such as VPN, VPC pairing or firewalls are of concern to IT managers. These topics still come from the world of internal company networks and the clear definition for inside / outside. On the one hand, the complexity of the infrastructure has become more complicated, on the other hand, it must provide an infrastructure that, despite all its agility, still allows security and monitoring.
This goal will only be achieved if these distributed worlds are again under a central management, without sacrificing the advantages in terms of agility. Therefore, in 2022, interest in multi-zone solutions based on service mesh will increase by leaps and bounds, because with this network, Group-wide policies can be enforced via the many decentralized islands. Individual developer teams can continue to work successfully without much bureaucratic effort.
* Sven Walther is the contact person for all technical questions in the area of API and services and is responsible for presentations and installations with interested parties in Kong’s solutions Engineering. He focuses on providing first-class solutions for APIs, services and developer engagement. Sven Walther holds a degree in economics and has more than 20 years of international experience with various IT solutions for companies that use, deploy and manage APIs.
