APIs, APIs, APIs
Nowadays, organisations use API connections all the time, from internal applications such as accounting, HR management, contents management systems (CMS), loading Sales/Purchase transactions, and on-premise backend database to external applications such as Salesforce, cloud data storage systems like AWS, Azure, Google, etc. They are increasing in number, and you need something to manage and organise them. You also need to think about tightening up their security, especially authentication and authorisation, managing your external customer’s subscriptions to access your APIs. In this article, we will look at an overview of Boomi’s latest enhanced API Management designed to address these challenges comprehensively.
Boomi Acquisition and New API Management
In the past, we used to create a hybrid system for our clients using the third-party API Management platform with Boomi integration processes. However, after Boomi acquired APIIDA’s federated API management and TIBCO’s Mashery component, Boomi’s new API Management will have more capabilities, and Boomi can help change complex integration processes to simplified models. Boomi can offer customers the benefit of API Control Plane and cutting-edge Cloud API Gateway with enhanced security and traffic management.
Benefits to Boomi Customers
We can now take advantage of API Control Place to govern APIs in a centralised interface with the ability to access multiple vendors, including Apigee, AWS, Azure, Broadcom, Gravitee, Kong and WSO2. It is a game-changer for Boomi customers to simplify API designs, reuse APIs, and reduce cost to access all their APIs without replacing existing API investments.
Boomi’s API Management is a unified solution for managing the entire API lifecycle. It is an easy-to-use administration portal that houses a dashboard for monitoring and analysing API performance, creating and configuring API services and proxy components, and setting up access policies and authentication sources. All these capabilities are conveniently accessible under one roof.
Boomi also provides the Developer Portal to not only provide API documentation to developers who may be internal or external to your organisation but also to set up security, subscriptions, and policies on customers’ publicly available APIs. Boomi’s API management has extended the Boomi integration and automation platform and offers Boomi customers access to an enterprise-class, high-performance, and highly scalable API platform.
What is included in the Boomi’s API Management?
The following components are under the hood of API Management:
- Boomi Platform API Life Cycle – this is the place where you build and integrate APIs using API Services component and API Proxy component to connect with existing APIs, which are set up outside of Boomi. You can view all the deployed APIs in one glance. You can also deploy to another environment or edit deployment from here.
- API Gateway – it allows you to manage and operate your APIs, interacts with clients, and protects your APIs and data systems.
- Dashboard – you can gain insights into API performance, viewing error rates, accessing response times.
- Developer Portal – this is the place where developers find the available APIs and their documentation of your or your customer’s Boomi platform. Developers can set up, develop and test security, subscriptions, and policies on APIs.
Boomi’s available APIs are:
- REST API
- SOAP
- OData
In terms of security, the following policy rules are configurable by Boomi’s User Interface or GraphQL:
- JSON Validation Policy – it checks the payload and compares it with the policy. If the policy is met, the API responds with the requested data. If not met, the API responds with an error.
- Cache Policy – it stores some data in cache system to help reduce the traffic to the backend.
- IP Filtering Policy – it controls access to your API via IP addresses, IP address range or domain name.
- Mock Policy – it allows you to create a mocked response when a customer is calling one of your API services.
- Transform-Headers – you can add, remove or allow request headers from an API call. This is useful to retrieve JWT token for future requests, etc.
- Transform Query Parameters Policy – you can use this to override incoming HTTP request query parameters.
- XML to JSON Policy – it transforms XML content to JSON content.
- Multiple HTTP responses from an API endpoint – From June 2024, you can import, build and publish multiple responses including importing and/or generating multiple response definitions from the OpenAPI specification file and publishing custom responses.
- There are much more policies available. For more supported policies, please visit Boomi’s documentation.
Though it is still in Beta features, Graph QL IDE is available on the cloud development site. Developers do not need to own a third-party IDE. It will be available on API Explorer in the API Management. Boomi has kept innovating its low code development platform to an Enterprise Cloud Platform with CICD support, and more enhanced features are on a way. Boomi can be your one-stop platform for all your integration needs with API management, Data Hub, Event Stream and the front-end UI, Flow.
Next Step
Boomi has kept improving their platform, definitely taking our wish list on board to this latest API Management, and more enhancements are to come. Curious about how Boomi can transform your system to integrate with an existing legacy system, cloud system, or new integration? Boomi’s total solution or hybrid – either way, contact us today, and let us explore how Boomi can enhance your business.
