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.