Review: API Management for the Software- Defined Network

API Management for the Software- Defined Network by Apigee

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I picked this, basically a solution white paper, to research a case example of a specific API management tool. The trend giving rise to this example is:

"Software-Defined Networking (SDN) is a shift in network-based computing and
communications based on breaking existing physical boundaries on switches,
routers, and controllers through well-defined APIs."

This qualifies as an API management example as the software abstracts out and allows easier interaction with the hardware APIs:

"OpenFlow is both software and a protocol that specifies an API for programming the flow tables of a network switch. Previously, these flow tables were not programmable remotely or by third parties, as network switches included a proprietary operating system and native programs which controlled the flow tables. With OpenFlow, the switch only manages flow tables, and the OS and programs execute on a different machine. This removes constraints on control software, as it can now be written in any language and run on any operating system and any hardware – including commodity chipsets and virtualized hardware."

It was helpful to see the list of API management features, suggesting some to consider for any API management implementation:

"Apigee’s embedded API management software for SDN controllers features:
›› Caching
›› Security
›› Prepackaged analytics"

I am starting to see that API management is about API transformation.



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