In the previous sections, you learned how to implement HTTP-triggered functions and expose them to your customers. These functions are basically awoken by an HTTP call and return information to the caller or change the status of a business entity. But what would happen if your business were to provide information via the API? How could you count the use of the API by a customer with a certain agreement or guarantee a specific SLA?
Implementing these kinds of functionalities within an Azure function (and, in general, in an API written with any technology) is not easy. One of the solutions is to put API Management in front of your API.
API Management is an Azure service that allows you to implement enterprise patterns such as authentication, throttling, and usage quotas for your API (both REStful than SOAP) without changing your API code.
This chapter will cover the following topics:
- Understanding Azure API Management
- Creating an API Management service
- How to expose your APIs
- How to implement API policies (caching, security, throttling, and so on)
- How to create a new product (an API that a developer can use)
- Managing API Management with the REST API
- The advantages of API Management