System Design Basics

𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗕𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗰𝘀: 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗣𝗜 𝗚𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘄𝗮𝘆?
An API Gateway (AG) is a server that acts as a single point of entry for a set of #microservices.

It receives client requests, forwards them to the appropriate microservice, and then returns the server's response to the client.

AG is responsible for tasks such as routing, authentication, and rate limiting. This enables microservices to focus on their individual tasks and improves the overall performance and scalability of the system.

Here are some of the uses of AG:

𝗟𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗯𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴: The AG can distribute incoming requests among multiple instances of a microservice, enabling the system to handle a larger number of requests and improving its overall performance and scalability.

𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: You can rate limit client access to microservices with an AG. This can help prevent #DDoS attacks and other types of malicious behavior.

𝗖𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴: The AG can #cache responses from the microservices, reducing the number of requests that need to be forwarded to the microservices and improving the overall performance of the system.

𝗥𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴: The AG receives requests from clients and routes them to the appropriate microservice. This enables clients to access the various microservices through a single entry point, simplifying the overall system design.

𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘅𝘆: AG can act as a reverse proxy, routing incoming requests to the appropriate backend service based on the request path or other criteria.

𝗦𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆: The AG can be used to authenticate clients and enforce access control policies for the microservices. This helps to ensure that only authorized clients can access the microservices and helps to prevent unauthorized access.

𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐬: AG can transform incoming requests and outgoing responses to and from the backend to meet the needs of different clients or to comply with different backend architectures.

𝗟𝗼𝗴𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴: The AG can collect metrics and other data about requests and responses, providing valuable insights into the performance and behavior of the microservices. This can help to identify and diagnose problems, and improve the overall reliability and resilience of the system.

𝗦𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: AG can integrate with other services, such as #awslambda, to enable serverless architectures and enable complex processing of requests without requiring a dedicated server.

𝗖𝗶𝗿𝗰𝘂𝗶𝘁 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿: AG can be used to implement circuit breaker patterns, which can help to protect against cascading failures and improve the resilience of your system.

𝗔𝗣𝗜 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴: AG can be used to implement API versioning, allowing you to maintain multiple versions of an API and manage the transition from one version to another.