6.1.1.1. Implement Azure API Management

First Principle: Implementing Azure API Management (APIM) involves creating an APIM instance, importing and publishing APIs, and applying policies. This enables centralization, securing, and monitoring APIs for consistent security, governance, and analytics.

What It Is: Implementing Azure API Management refers to the process of setting up and configuring an "APIM instance" to manage your APIs.

Visual: "APIM Implementation Workflow"

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1. Create an APIM Instance:

• In the Azure Portal, search for "API Management" and select "Create".
• Fill in "subscription", "resource group", "region", organization, and admin email.
• Choose a "pricing tier" (Developer is suitable for testing, Basic/Standard/Premium for production with higher SLAs).
• Review and create. Provisioning may take 20–30 minutes.

2. Import and Publish APIs:

• In your "APIM instance", go to "APIs" > "+ Add API".
• Select import method: "OpenAPI/Swagger", "Azure Function", or "App Service" (for backend).
• Provide the API definition (e.g., OpenAPI JSON) or backend link.
• Configure display name, URL suffix, and product ("product" groups APIs for consumers).
• Save and publish. The API is now accessible via the "APIM gateway".

3. Apply Basic Policies: (See 6.1.1.2 for more detail) Policies are executed sequentially at different stages (inbound, backend, outbound, on-error).

• "Rate Limiting/Throttling": Add a rate-limit policy to restrict request rates (e.g., 100 calls/min). This protects your backend services from overload.
• "Authentication/Authorization": Use validate-jwt for "JWT (JSON Web Token)" tokens or require client certificates.
• "Caching": Apply cache-lookup and cache-store to cache responses and improve performance.

4. Test APIs:

• Use the "Developer Portal" for interactive testing and documentation.
• Alternatively, use the "Test" tab in the Azure Portal.

Scenario: You need to expose an existing backend microservice as a public API. You want to create an API Management instance, import the API from an OpenAPI definition, set a basic rate limit for incoming calls, and then test the API through the APIM gateway.

Reflection Question: How does implementing Azure API Management (creating an instance, importing/publishing APIs, and applying basic policies) fundamentally enable centralization, securing, and monitoring APIs for consistent security, governance, and analytics, ensuring a robust API gateway for your backend services?