What is our primary use case?
We mainly use these APIs for east-to-west communication within our internal system and partner collaboration. While most companies prefer tool-based API management for partner collaboration, for internal consumption, and integration between application insight, we tend to use cloud-native tools provided by AWS.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are the standard ones that APIs offer. Depending on the requirements, Azure API management's throttling feature is used for continuous consumption. Otherwise, we rely on the default features available.
Since it is mainly for internal communication, we haven't received any concerns or requests for better tools or additional features. The initial tools provided by Amazon API Gateway suffice for our needs.
What needs improvement?
The only issue we've noticed is a lack of awareness when it comes to partner collaboration. Customers prefer using separate API gateways for scalability. Apart from that, feature-wise, most API management solutions offer similar features and learning resources on how to use them.
The pricing could be improved. In cases where customers require real-time sync or real-time calling groups with IoT, the volume of data and time lag become a concern. AWS charges for data ingress and egress, which could be further reduced. This would be helpful for customers dealing with large amounts of data coming in or going out from their systems. So, improving pricing for volume data transfer is something that can be considered, as it has been consistent feedback from customers.
For how long have I used the solution?
It has been around four years since it became publicly available. We have tier-one partnerships with all the hyperscalers, including AWS, Azure, and GCP.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution. I would rate the stability a nine out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability a nine out of ten. It is very scalable, and we don't need to hire additional engineers.
Our clients are primarily enterprise businesses. We have a strong customer base in log integrations.
How are customer service and support?
The support is good, especially if you are a premium partner with AWS or have active scalable support. If you have a tier-one partnership, the support has been phenomenal.
However, if the partnership is lower, it may take more time or have SLAs involved. But overall, the support team is more receptive than the infrastructure team.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Currently, we mainly focus on cloud-native solutions. We have a couple of partnerships, including Dell Boomi and MuleSoft. We also had a customer requirement for Apigee design, so I was looking for a comparison between API management with cloud-native tools and their offerings.
Generally, we recommend using API management provided by the Hyperscale industry, such as AWS, Azure, and GCP Virtual Desktop.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. With big data forms and CI/CD automation, it becomes very straightforward.
Most of the time, we have seen hybrid and cloud deployments being preferred by our customers. That has been the dominant use case for most of them.
What about the implementation team?
The Amazon configuration IT process usually takes a couple of hours. If the requirements are clear and there are no additional requests from the customer's side, it's just a matter of a couple of hours to set up the new components for straightforward and simple requirements.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing can be expensive depending on the use case. If there is a lot of data processing involved, it can become a costly solution. However, it is still better than other products available in the market. Since our customers are mostly large enterprises, they prefer not to go for open-source alternatives or cheaper limited services. They prefer to stick with what is available with the Hyperscale providers.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We use API tools from Amazon, Azure, and sometimes GCP depending on where the customer workloads are. For Azure, we use Azure EDP management, and for Amazon, we use generative VPN management. Most of our requirements revolve around Azure APM management and AWS APM engine.
The features we look at are mostly similar across the board. There aren't many differentiating factors. For example, in terms of orchestration, Azure offers step functions or Lambda functions, which are available in AWS as well.
The customers tend to use the native features unless they need to work with different API gateways for scalability reasons. The only issue we've noticed is a lack of awareness when it comes to partner collaboration. Customers prefer using separate API gateways for scalability. Apart from that, feature-wise, most API management solutions offer similar features and learning resources on how to use them.
What other advice do I have?
We would definitely recommend sticking to native solutions because then you have one Hyperscale provider supporting the applications, storage, compute, and APIs.
Another aspect to consider is the security features within the API. If you need to collaborate outside the organization, there are numerous security features available through the Hyperscale provider that can be leveraged.
However, if there is a very specific requirement that the native API Gateway doesn't fulfill, then you can explore other external products or solutions.
Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten.
