API management with Kong: key features of the platform
Modern business is increasingly dependent on APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), which are becoming the basis for system integration, data exchange and new product development. APIs help to create new business models, automate processes and provide a better user experience. But as the technology evolves, so does the complexity of managing it.
The number of APIs is growing rapidly, as is the volume of requests. At the same time, infrastructure is becoming more complex, performance, stability and security requirements are increasing, and organisations are faced with the need to ensure reliable data exchange across their systems. Under these conditions, API management becomes an important task that requires the use of specialised platforms that can cope with all the challenges.
That's where Kong comes in - a powerful platform that provides tools for centralised API management, security and optimisation of digital solutions. In this article, we'll look at the key features of Kong that will help businesses confidently achieve their goals in the modern digital environment.
Built on the world's most widely used API gateway, the Kong platform delivers fast, reliable, secure digital interactions. It scales performance, protects data and optimises the developer experience by combining API gateways, service mesh, AI gateways and API access management.
This makes Kong a leader in API management:
- 400 billion+ API requests daily.
- 700+ customers worldwide.
- 160 thousand+ community members.
Kong has been recognised as a leader by leading analyst firms such as Gartner and G2 for its unique solutions for enterprises and developers.
In the following sections, we'll take a closer look at how Kong helps enterprises manage APIs, improve security, scalability and performance, and gain a competitive edge in the marketplace.
What is Kong?
Kong is a powerful API management platform that uses the API Gateway to centrally control and optimise API performance. It is designed to facilitate the integration of microservices, manage distributed systems and ensure reliability at any scale.
The platform provides tools to improve performance, adapt to modern architectures, and address security concerns. With its high scalability and integration capabilities, Kong is ideal for organisations looking to maintain the stability of their digital systems even under heavy load.
Key benefits of the platform include its ability to provide centralised API management, detect and neutralise security threats, and seamlessly integrate with infrastructures of any complexity. With support for modern technologies and flexible architecture, Kong helps organisations efficiently launch new services, manage existing ones and remain competitive in a dynamic digital environment.
Why is API management important?
In today's digital world, APIs are a key element in enabling interaction between applications, services and users. Effective API management impacts business performance, security and success. Here are the key reasons why it matters:
1. Optimise application performance
APIs act as intermediaries between different components of an IT system, enabling the exchange of data and functionality. They provide:
- Rapid integration of new services and technologies.
- Flexibility in application development, allowing teams to work independently of each other.
- Efficient use of resources by reducing duplication of functionality.
2. Security
APIs are a potentially vulnerable point in a system, so securing them should be a priority. Improper API management can lead to:
- Confidential data leaks.
- Cyber threats such as DDoS attacks or unauthorised access.
- An effective management platform such as Kong includes built-in authentication, authorisation, encryption and access control features that greatly enhance security.
3. Performance
Stable API performance under heavy load is essential to ensure a positive customer experience. API instability can lead to:
- Service outages.
- Delays in application response.
- Negative impact on corporate reputation.
With API scaling and performance monitoring mechanisms, the Kong platform enables organisations to maintain high levels of performance even as the number of requests increases.
4. Scale and automate APIs
As your business grows, so does the number of APIs and the amount of data they handle. Kong's tools enable you to:
- Automate API management.
- Scale services to meet your needs.
- Reduce developer workload by simplifying operational processes.
5. API Monitoring and Integration
Continuous API monitoring allows you to identify potential problems before they affect users. In addition, Kong facilitates seamless API integration with other services, maintaining a single ecosystem that maximises business efficiency.
The Kong platform provides all the necessary tools for scaling, security, monitoring and integration of APIs, ensuring their stable operation and contributing to the development of modern digital solutions.
KONG Gateway: a comprehensive approach to API management
KONG Gateway is an API gateway for hybrid and multi-cloud systems, optimised for microservices and distributed architectures. Its features:
Centralised API Management
KONG Gateway is a lightweight, high-performance API gateway that acts as a reverse proxy to manage and route API requests. It enables:
- Use Kong Manager to configure APIs from a single graphical interface.
- Group services, plug-ins and users according to business needs, simplifying management even in large systems.
Flexibility for different architectures
Kong Gateway supports modern architectures, including microservices, multi-cloud and hybrid environments. Thanks to its integration with Kubernetes and Docker, it can be easily integrated into existing infrastructure, providing maximum adaptability.
Fast request processing speed
Optimised request processing in Kong Gateway minimises latency and ensures stable system performance, even under heavy load.
Scalability and Availability
To ensure stable operation, the platform offers:
- Scale APIs horizontally by adding new nodes.
- API containerisation that accelerates infrastructure deployment.
- High availability through data replication and automatic request distribution.
API Security
Kong Gateway provides multi-level security, including:
- Authentication (OAuth 2.0, JWT) and authorisation.
- IP filtering for access control.
- Flexible API security policies for different user groups.
API Policies and Routing
The platform allows you to configure routes for requests based on parameters such as geolocation or client type. You can:
- Configure access policies based on user roles and permissions.
- Use plugins to transform requests and responses (gRPC, GraphQL).
API Monitoring, Logging and Tracing
Kong Gateway integrates with performance monitoring tools such as Prometheus or Grafana and supports request tracing for diagnostics and optimisation.
Caching
The API caching feature reduces latency, reduces server load and optimises performance.
Kong Gateway provides a comprehensive approach to API management that combines scalability, performance and security, making it an effective solution for today's IT infrastructure.
Kong Enterprise
Kong Enterprise is an advanced version of Kong Gateway that provides scalable, secure and flexible API management solutions. It is designed for large organisations and includes:
- Multi-region API support. Enables efficient, real-time management of requests across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
- Advanced plug-ins. Access to more than 400 plugins, including exclusive features such as OpenID Connect for identity provider integration and advanced traffic throttling.
- Advanced security. Includes secure role-based access (RBAC) to APIs, encryption of data at rest, support for cloud provider secrets (AWS, Azure, GCP), and FIPS 140-2 compliance.
- Integration with modern technologies. Support for REST, gRPC, WebSockets, GraphQL, integration with Apache Kafka, and dynamic plugin management to extend API functionality.
- Analysis and monitoring tools. Flexible logging, audit support and event notifications allow you to track changes and events in the system.
- Workspace segmentation. Ability to allocate API resources to different projects or teams for easy management.
- Support for continuous work. Allows you to set up new data nodes even when the central management system is down.
Kong Enterprise delivers high performance, scalability and security to help organisations move faster to the cloud and streamline API management.
API Containerisation and Deployment
Kong Gateway supports a wide range of integrations with automation and management platforms for containerised environments, providing flexible and powerful API gateways:
- Docker. It provides fast and easy deployment of API services in containers. Using Docker Compose templates, Kong simplifies the process of orchestrating services, ensuring their scalability and reliable operation even in complex environments. The solution is suitable for use with or without databases, allowing you to tailor the deployment to specific business needs.
- Kubernetes. Kong Gateway natively integrates with Kubernetes, providing a dedicated ingress controller, helm chart and operator. This allows you to centrally manage inbound traffic in Kubernetes clusters, simplifying application deployment, scaling, and management. The Ingress Controller acts as a single point of control for all incoming requests, ensuring stable and secure service operation.
Support for other platforms
In addition to containerised solutions, Kong Gateway can be deployed on popular Linux distributions such as Debian, Ubuntu, RedHat and Amazon Linux 2, ensuring adaptability to a variety of environments and infrastructure requirements, making Kong the ideal choice for organisations of all sizes.
With its versatility and integration capabilities, Kong Gateway simplifies the building of modern API ecosystems, enabling companies to adapt more quickly to market demands.
How to get started with Kong
1. Needs Assessment. Determine the key objectives for using Kong Gateway: which APIs you need to manage, traffic volumes, security and integration requirements. If you are planning to implement AI solutions (e.g. LLM), consider using specialised plugins such as AI Proxy or AI Proxy Advanced.
2. Deploy Kong. Select the appropriate deployment method:
- Docker. Get up and running quickly with support for Docker Compose templates for scalability and flexibility.
- Kubernetes. Native Kubernetes integration with Kong Ingress Controller to automate API traffic management and cluster connectivity.
- Konnect. A cloud-based API lifecycle management platform that lets you get started in less than 5 minutes.
- Local servers. Supports deployment on popular Linux distributions including Ubuntu, Debian, RedHat and Amazon Linux 2.
3. Configure the platform's API gateway. Add services and routes for your APIs. For example, to integrate with LLM, create a route and configure the AI Proxy plugin to dynamically redirect traffic to the artificial intelligence model. Use plugins to
- Protect queries (AI Prompt Guard).
- Cache responses (AI Semantic Cache).
- Decorate and standardise requests (AI Prompt Decorator).
4. Integration with existing systems. Connect Kong to logging, monitoring and caching services (e.g. Grafana, Prometheus) to ensure stability and a high level of API observability. Use plugins to analyse traffic and optimise requests, such as AI Rate Limiting Advanced to limit traffic by the number of tokens.
5. Test. Verify settings by simulating real requests to your APIs. To integrate with LLM, send a test request to ensure the AI Proxy plug-ins are handling traffic correctly. Evaluate the performance, stability and correctness of the responses.
Thanks to Kong Gateway's advanced features, you will be able to effectively manage APIs, ensure security and optimise work with modern AI solutions.
Best practices
- Use containerisation. Simplifies deployment and management.
- Set up monitoring. Track performance and analyse bottlenecks.
- Regularly update security policies. Protect APIs from today's threats.
Kong is a powerful and flexible API management platform that opens up new ways to optimise application performance, improve security and simplify integration between services. Its functionality allows organisations to effectively solve tasks of any complexity, from classic API management to integration with advanced AI solutions.
The key benefits of Kong:
- API scalability and high availability. Kong easily adapts to load growth, ensuring stable operation under high traffic conditions.
- Powerful monitoring and logging tools. The platform integrates with popular tools such as Prometheus and Grafana, allowing you to monitor the efficiency and performance of your APIs in real-time.
- Flexible integration. Kong supports a variety of deployment methods (on-premises, in the cloud or a hybrid environment) and is compatible with modern technologies such as Kubernetes and Docker.
- Adapts to microservices architecture. The platform is ideal for organisations using APIs for microservices, enabling rapid data exchange and business process optimisation.
- Advanced AI support. Specialised plug-ins allow you to integrate artificial intelligence, automate routing, analyse traffic, and ensure data security.
Why choose Kong?
Kong not only helps to implement modern solutions but also simplifies the management of the technological infrastructure, thus reducing maintenance costs. Thanks to its open architecture, the platform allows you to easily integrate new services and quickly adapt to changes in the business environment.
Ready to implement Kong?
Contact the Integrity Vision specialists. We can help you assess your needs, perform the integration and ensure the platform runs smoothly.
Take your API management to the next level with Kong!