API Gateway C o m p a r i s o n & R e c o m m e n d a t i o n s
Comprehensive Capability Assessment
CONSENT ON COMPARISON
“The o pariso & re o e datio s provided agai st ea h of the API Produ ts are ased o our own assessment & implementation experience on various capabilities. This does not stand as the
thumb rule against the products and this recommendations are to set guideline for product selection
& up o i g i ple e tatio s for usi ess. “
Strictly for Internal Use by the Business & Partner
Feature
API Keys Adequate Adequate Adequate Adequate Adequate
Identity Management Adequate Average ( Authorization Bearer
Token handling be manually
implemented using Lambda )
Adequate Excellent. Provides
integration with number
of IBM Auth. Suites
Average ( Security
Configurations are not pretty
straightforward as peers
Threat Protection Adequate Excellent. Stage level throttling
is possible in AWS
Adequate Excellent Excellent ( In Addition, KONG
provides black listing & white
listing of IPs a well )
Schema Validation Average Adequate Adequate Adequate Average
Encryption / masking Average Adequate Excellent Average Average
Multi Factor Authentication Adequate Excellent ( Cognito Comes up
with adapters to support
variety of identity servers )
Adequate Average Average
Token Management, OAUTH,
SAML
Adequate Excellent ( It could do
integration with Social media
channels as well )
Excellent Adequate Average
SSL & PKI Signatures Adequate
Adequate Adequate Adequate Adequate
API Security & Identity
Feature
API Keys Excellent. Multi level Subscription keys Adequate
Identity Management Excellent. Integration with Multiple
AD domains
Excellent.
Have Isolated sandbox &
production environments.
Threat Protection Excellent. Customizable threat
protection policies
Adequate
Schema Validation Excellent Adequate
Encryption / masking Excellent Adequate
Multi Factor Authentication Excellent Average. Does ’t support. But It a integrate with SAASPAAS for MFA.
Token Management, OAUTH, SAML Excellent Adequate
SSL & PKI Signatures Excellent Adequate
API Security & Identity
Feature
Versioning Excellent ( Easy to
Configure, Default Version
number is provided ).
Adequate Excellent ( Auto increment of
API version number upon
deployment )
Excellent Adequate
Deployment Excellent. WS02 can have
both prototype &
production versions at
same time for easy
promotion
Adequate. Promotion to other
environment is happening
through staging
Excellent ( Parallel execution of
both versions of APIs are
possible )
Excellent. Adequate
Life Cycle Excellent. Workflows are
customizable. WS02
developer studio facilitates
life cycle management
components
Adequate Excellent ( Provides excellent
way of handling life cycles
through API Studio )
Excellent Adequate
Publishing to Multiple
External Stores
Excellent. Facilitates to
connect with multiple API
Gateways
Adequate. Supports through
multi region – AZ
Adequate Excellent Adequate, complex
procedure of cluster
creation on multi source
deployment
API Lifecycle Governance
Feature
Versioning Adequate Excellent. (Shared
API portal for
multiple versions)
Deployment Excellent Adequate
Life Cycle Adequate Adequate
Publishing to Multiple
External Stores
Average Average
API Lifecycle Governance
Features
Workflow Excellent. Multi categories
of workflows could be
configured
Average. Attained through
Step functions & Lambda
but not extensive as WS02
Adequate. Workflow
creation is possible using
build-in policies
Excellent support for workflow
creation using IBM Data Power
Extension & XML Mark-ups
Adequate. Dynamic
mediation on end point URL
using plug-in handlers
Service Consolidation Adequate. Possible using
custom handlers
Adequate. There is no
direct approach to that.
This has to be attained
using Lambda
Excellent. Consolidation
works well in APIGEE
using flow handlers
Excellent. IBM Micro Gateway
& IBM Data Power provides
complete support for
consolidation process
Adequate. Possible through
custom plug-in handlers
Branching Policies Excellent. Mediation
Extension provides great
support for branching
policies
Adequate. AWS Step
Function along with
Mapping Templates could
be leveraged
Excellent. Highly
customized flows can be
created with dynamic
branching logic
Excellent. Possible using the
above tool sets said for
Consolidation
Possible through plug-in
handlers
API Orchestration
Features
Workflow Excellent. Custom
workflows through Azure
Service Bus
Excellent. Supports
custom workflows.
Service Consolidation Excellent. Extensive set of
policies for service
consolidation
Adequate
Branching Policies Adequate Adequate
API Orchestration
Features
Data Format
Transformation
Excellent. Possible using
WS02 Mediation Engine.
Adequate. AWS Mapping
Templates provisioning for
data format transformation
Excellent. Configurable
policies are available for
transformation
Excellent. IBM Data Power
could be integrated for
performing this activity.
Adequate. Request
transformer plug-ins could
be configured for attaining
this purpose
Protocol Conversion from
SOAP to REST
Excellent. WS02 Mediation
engine will facilitate the
conversion process
Adequate, Possible
through Lambda
Excellent. Build-in Policies
could be defined for this
transformation
Adequate Adequate. Should be
attained through custom
plugins & handlers
Legacy Integration Excellent. Provides
integration with various
external sources, social
media, payment systems
Adequate. There is no
direct adapters to integrate
but lambda could be
leverage for attaining the
purpose
Custom policies could be
created for this, but no
straight away adapters
are available to support
this.,
Excellent. Provides excellent
level of connectors
Adequate. There is no
provision for legacy
integration but custom plug-
ins could be created for
achieving this purpose
Traffic Mediation
Features
Data Format
Transformation
Excellent. Provides
Extensive set of
transformation rules
Excellent. Has powerful
transformation engine
Dataweave to transform
data.
Protocol Conversion from
SOAP to REST
Excellent. Possible
through SOAP Pass
through. This could
also be customized
using policies
Adequate
Legacy Integration Excellent. Possible
through Azure Service
Bus
Adequate
Traffic Mediation
Features
Client ID & App Key Gen. Adequate Adequate Adequate Adequate Adequate
Interactive API Console Adequate Adequate Adequate Adequate Adequate
Catalogue Adequate Adequate Adequate Adequate Adequate
Search & Provisioning Adequate Adequate Adequate Adequate Adequate
Developer & Application On boarding
Features
Client ID & App Key Gen. Adequate Adequate
Interactive API Console Excellent. Extensive provision to
publish & explore services
Adequate
Catalogue Adequate Adequate
Search & Provisioning Extensive provision to search
through the product catalogue
Excellent. It has rich search
capability.
Developer & Application On boarding
Features
Data Format
Transformation
Excellent. Mediation &
Orchestration framework
of WS02 will be leveraged
Adequate. AWS Mapping
templates could be
leveraged
Excellent. Declarable
policies could be
associated for such
transformations
Excellent. IBM APIc
Microgateway offers powerful
transformation capability using
node runtime
Adequate
Protocol Conversion from
SOAP to REST
Excellent. Mediation &
Orchestration framework
of WS02 will be leveraged
Adequate Excellent, Protocol
conversions works well
APIGEE in declarative
fashion
Excellent Adequate
Legacy Integration Excellent. Provides
integration with various
external sources, social
media, payment systems
Adequate. There is no
direct adapters to integrate
but lambda could be
leverage for attaining the
purpose
Custom policies could be
created for this, but no
straight away adapters
are available to support
this.,
Excellent. Possibility of doing
complex legacy transformation
using IBM data power and WTX
extensions
Adequate. There is no
provision for legacy
integration but custom plug-
ins could be created for
achieving this purpose
Rate Limitation Excellent. Provisions to
create custom throttling
setup
Excellent. Provides micro
level control over multiple
level of objects
Excellent. Adequate Adequate
Caching Excellent. Multiple Cache
levels are considered and
more fine grained control
over cache could be
provided
Adequate. Very Straight
forward caching setup, but
not focusing on effective
management of cache
Excellent. Multi Level
cache management
Adequate Adequate
Traffic Mediation & Routing
Features
Data Format Transformation Excellent. Extensive policies those
could be customized as per the
transformation need
Adequate
Protocol Conversion from SOAP to
REST
Adequate Adequate
Legacy Integration Excellent. Possible through Azure
Service Bus
Excellent. Extensive support
for integrating with legacy
systems and expose as APIs.
Rate Limitation Excellent. Multiple level of
throttling setup i.e., user, location,
key, geography etc.
Adequate
Caching Excellent. Provisions bring your
own cache – Radis Cache for
custom caching modules
Excellent. Mule Object Store
is used for caching the
response.
Traffic Mediation & Routing
Features
Traffic Monitoring Excellent. WSO2 Carbon
comes up extensive
capability to monitor
Excellent Amazon Cloud
watch could be leveraged
to see the Usage, traffic
spikes, performance
metrics & error rates
through the dashboard
Excellent. In addition to
what other tools are
providing, APIGEE
provides custom JDK for
extracting the log file
details.
Excellent. Extensive level of
monitoring on each level
Excellent. Galileo
Monitoring will provide
monitoring the details to the
extend possible.
Analytics Excellent. WS02 Analytical
Engine could be
provisioned for analytical
purpose.
Adequate. AWS Market
place provides Analytical
Tools for this purpose.
Near real time analytics is
possible in APIGEE, and
data could be logged in
Cassandra
Externally pluggable Kibana
engine for logging & analytics
Excellent. Works with
Galileo on request, response
analysis, usage etc.
Analytics & Traffic Monitoring
Features
Traffic Monitoring Excellent. Pluggable
through Event Hub &
Kibana
Excellent. Customized dashboard
for API monitoring and provision
to setup the custom & trigger
notifications.
Analytics Adequate Adequate
Analytics & Traffic Monitoring
Features
Mobile Analytics Adequate, Provides mobile first
traffic monitoring
Adequate. Mobile device
initiated traffic could be
assessed
Adequate. Could be
attained with APIGEE
BaaS.
Excellent. Catalogues could be
customized to monitor mobile
traffic
Adequate
Push Notification Possible through AMQP Adequate. Push
Notification is possible
through SQS Services
Adequate. Possible with
APIGEE BaaS
Adequate Adequate
Geo Fencing Excellent Adequate Excellent Adequate Adequate
Compression Excellent Adequate Excellent Excellent. Level of compression
in protocol and communication
type level also could be
specified
Adequate
Pagination Adequate Adequate Excellent Adequate Adequate
Mobile Optimization & Integration
Features
Mobile Analytics Adequate Average. Do ’t capture
analytics specific to device.
Push Notification Adequate Adequate. Possible via
Amazon Simple Notification
Service (SNS) connector.
Geo Fencing Excellent.
Customizable through
policies
Average. Do ’t have geo fencing provision. But
achievable via custom
policy creation.
Compression Adequate Adequate
Pagination Average Adequate
Mobile Optimization & Integration
Features
SSO to SaaS Providers Adequate. WS02 Identity
Manager could be
leveraged to enforce SSO
Excellent Amazon Cognito
& IAM could be leveraged
to enforce SSO
Adequate. Could be
configured with external
SSO
Excellent OAUTH Plugin could be
configured
IaaS Integration Adequate Excellent Excellent Excellent Adequate
SaaS Data Connectors Excellent Adequate Adequate Excellent Adequate
Cloud Integration
Cloud Integration
Features
SSO to SaaS Providers Excellent. Default and external token
issuance systems could be
configured. Azure domain store could
host number of AUTH providers,
Adequate
IaaS Integration Excellent, Express Route provisions
the integration facility
Adequate
SaaS Data Connectors Excellent, through Azure Service Bus
provides variety of connectors
Excellent
Features
System Monitoring Excellent. WS02 Carbon
Metrics Provides powerful
monitoring
Excellent. Cloud Watch
could be provisioned for
extensive monitoring
Excellent. Edge
Dashboard monitoring
could be leveraged
Excellent. Different level of
monitoring could be performed
Excellent. Cluster Availability
Stats could be obtained
through Galileo Monitors
Clustering & Scalability Adequate. WS02 PAAS
Provisions dynamic load
balancing
Excellent. EC2 provides
massive scalability
Adequate, Some amount
of workaround is required
on clustering
Excellent. Rapidly scalable
through IBM Blue Mix
Adequate. Provisions
dynamic addition of new
nodes
Operational Integration
Features
System Monitoring Excellent. Provisions
through Event Hub
Excellent. Monitors the
performance across
servers and apps.
Clustering & Scalability Excellent. API could
be hosted in Multi
Region High
availability zones
Adequate. It has
limitation to have
maximum of eight
nodes in a cluster.
Operational Integration
Availability
Features
Auto healing Adequate Excellent Adequate Adequate Adequate
Auto scaling Adequate Adequate Adequate Adequate Adequate
Automatic Cluster
Discovery
Adequate Excellent Average Adequate Average
Dynamic Load Balancing Adequate Excellent Adequate Adequate Adequate
VM/Container Support Adequate Adequate Adequate Adequate Average
Multi Tenancy Adequate Excellent Adequate Adequate Average
Multi Region Deployment Adequate Excellent Adequate Adequate Average
Centralized Logging Adequate Excellent Adequate Adequate Average
Availability
Features
Auto healing Excellent Excellent. Cloudhub
monitors and
provide self-healing
mechanism.
Auto scaling Excellent Adequate
Automatic Cluster
Discovery
Excellent Adequate
Dynamic Load Balancing Excellent Adequate
VM/Container Support Excellent Adequate
Multi Tenancy Excellent Adequate
Multi Region Deployment Excellent Adequate
Centralized Logging Excellent Adequate
Monetization
Features
Usage Plans Excellent Excellent Excellent Adequate Adequate
Billing Engine Integration Adequate Excellent. Provides
integration with AWS
Marketplace products
Excellent Adequate Average
Rate Plan Adequate Adequate Adequate Adequate Average
Monetization
Features
Usage Plans Excellent. You can create
stripe plans for your
products
Adequate
Billing Engine
Integration
Excellent. Payment
provider could be
integrated for collecting
payments
Adequate
Rate Plan Adequate Adequate
Documentation & Developer Productivity
Features
Technical Support Excellent Excellent Excellent Average Adequate
Learning Curve Excellent Excellent Excellent Average Adequate
Ease of Development Adequate Adequate Adequate Average Average
Documentation & Developer Productivity
Features
Technical Support Excellent Excellent
Learning Curve Excellent Excellent
Ease of Development Excellent Excellent
Features
Pricing Equally Priced as APIGEE for higher
edition.
Equally priced as WS02,
Even cheaper with limited
capability
Open Source
Cost
Features
Pricing Pricing is high compared
to other API tools.
Final Chart of Comparison – Qualitative Benefits
1. API Life Cycle Governance
2. Traffic Mediation
3. Routing
4. Analytics & Traffic Monitoring
5. Mobile Optimization &
Integration
6. Cloud Integration
7. Documentation & Developer
Productivity
8. Cost Effective
1. API Security & Identity
2. Operational Integration
3. Availability
4. Documentation & Developer
Productivity
5. Cloud Integration
1. API Orchestration
2. Analytics & Traffic Monitoring
3. Monetization
4. Documentation & Developer
Productivity
1. API Security & Identity
2. API Orchestration
3. Traffic Mediation
4. Developer & Application
Onboarding
5. Routing
6. Cloud Integration
7. Operational Integration
8. Availability
9. Monetization
10. Documentation & Developer
Productivity
1. Life Cycle & Governance
2. Versioning
3. Deployment
4. API Keys Provisioning
5. Legacy Integration
6. Analytics & Traffic
Monitoring
Final Chart of Comparison – Qualitative Benefits
1. Cost Effective 1. Secure new APIs
2. Proxy for existing services
3. API Life Cycle Governance
4. Self Healing Mechanism
5. Customized dashboard for API
6. Anypoint Analytics
7. Interactive documentation
8. Rich Search Capability
9. Integration with legacy systems
10. API Keys Provisioning
Recommendation
We have detailed the ualitative enefits of using the said p odu ts & detailed po tfolio analysis ould help on de iving the suita le p odu t
References
• http://wso2.com/whitepapers/a-reference-architecture-for-deploying-wso2-middleware-on-kubernetes/#01
• http://docs.apigee.com/api-reference/content/monetization-apis - APIGEE Monetization
• https://docs.mulesoft.com/ - Mule AnyPoint Platform
$7 BILLION ENTERPRISE | 110,000 IDEAPRENEURS | 31 COUNTRIES
Prabhu Ramaswamy Lead Solutions Architect Modern AD – API & Micro Services CoE.
Gaurav Sharma Senior Technical Manager Modern AD – API & Micro Services CoE.
Content Contributors
Prakash Muthuswamy Senior Technical Architect Modern AD – API & Micro Services CoE.
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