Talk was delivered at Digital Exchange Bergisches Rheinland 2022 Abstract: APIs have become indispensable in today's IT world, because (almost) everything has an API. This circumstance can quickly lead to an API jungle that is difficult to manage. However, it must be possible to see whether and how APIs are used, which APIs exist at all or how they are secured. The use of an API gateway is a first step towards making the impending chaos manageable. Since infrastructures and platforms are very heterogeneous today and we are confronted with hybrid architectures, we need an API gateway that is flexible enough to deal with this heterogeneity. The Kong API Gateway offers this flexibility and can be deployed in almost any system environment, helping to shed light on the existing API jungle. In this session I will introduce basic concepts of the API Gateway solution and show how easy and fast you can enter the world of API management with the Kong API Gateway.

1. © OPITZ CONSULTING 2022 / Öffentlich
Rumble in the Jungle - API Kickstart with Kong 1
Gummersbach, 17.09.2022
Sven Bernhardt, OPITZ CONSULTING
Tizian Bürger, Kong Inc.
RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE
API KICKSTART WITH KONG

2. © OPITZ CONSULTING 2022 / Öffentlich
THAT‘S ME
Rumble in the Jungle - API Kickstart with Kong 2
Sven Bernhardt
Cloud-Native enthusiast, API & integration geek. Always curious how new
technologies and concepts can help to make things more valuable and efficient.
@sbernhardt
https://svenbernhardt.wordpress.com/
Chief Architect / Integration Evangelist
OPITZ CONSULTING Deutschland
GmbH

3. © OPITZ CONSULTING 2022 / Öffentlich
THAT‘S ME
Rumble in the Jungle - API Kickstart with Kong 3
Tizian Bürger
Leiter der lokalen Geschäftspräsenz von Kong in der DACH Region.
10 Jahre Erfahrung im Bereich Enterprise Software. 5 Jahre davon mit Fokus auf
OpenSource bzw. OpenCore
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tizianbuerger/
Regional Director CEMEA
Kong Inc.

4. © OPITZ CONSULTING 2022 / Öffentlich
CONNECTIVITY IS THE BACKBONE OF DIGITAL ORGANIZATIONS
Rumble in the Jungle - API Kickstart with Kong 4
Centralized
STATIC
ON-PREM
MONOLITH
VIRTUAL MACHINES
MANUAL CHANGE PROCESS
Decentralized
DYNAMIC
CLOUD / MULTI-CLOUD
MICROSERVICES / SERVERLESS
CONTAINERS, KUBERNETES
AUTOMATED CI/CD TOOL CHAIN
# Services & APIs
CONTROL AND
VISIBILITY

5. © OPITZ CONSULTING 2022 / Öffentlich
WHAT’S END-TO-END SERVICE CONNECTIVITY?
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¢ Between applications
¢ Within applications
¢ At the edge
EDGE
Monolithic
back end
service
Microservices
based app
Microservices exposed
at edge for external
consumption

6. © OPITZ CONSULTING 2022 / Öffentlich
EVOLUTION OF API MANAGEMENT
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CLASSIC API GATEWAY MODERN API GATEWAY FULL SERVICE CONNECTIVITY
MONOLITHIC APP
API
API MANAGEMENT
CLIENT
PRIVATE
TRAFFIC
PUBLIC TRAFFIC
GW DP
CLIENT
PUBLIC
TRAFFIC
GW
DP
API
APP
API
APP
API
APP
API
APP
API
APP
GW
DP
GW
DP
GW DP
CLIENT
PUBLIC
TRAFFIC
GW
DP
MESH CP
MESH 1 MESH 2

7. © OPITZ CONSULTING 2022 / Öffentlich
INTRODUCING
KONG KONNECT

8. © OPITZ CONSULTING 2022 / Öffentlich
KONG POWERING OUR DAILY LIVES
Rumble in the Jungle - API Kickstart with Kong 10

9. © OPITZ CONSULTING 2022 / Öffentlich
POWERING 50% WORLD’S NON-CASH
Rumble in the Jungle - API Kickstart with Kong 11
• Streamline large-scale,
complex global payments
system without disrupting
services for global customer
and merchant base
• Needed platform to govern
and securely expose APIs for
applications running in a
microservices architecture
with high reliability
Challenges
• Kong Enterprise
implemented as a service
connectivity platform to
centrally secure, manage and
monitor all global traffic
• Moving from monolithic to
microservices architecture,
with flexibility to manage
APIs across on-premise,
cloud and hybrid
deployments
Solution
• 75% Reduced TCO and
accelerated T2M 20x by
consolidating 20 regional
payment systems into a
single global system, with all
traffic managed and security
by Kong
• Saved dev teams hundreds of
hours per month via
automated generation and
maintenance of API contracts
with OpenAPI and centralized
monitoring of API traffic
Results

10. © OPITZ CONSULTING 2022 / Öffentlich
KONG API GATEWAY
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¢ Build on Open Source, driven by the community
¢ 32.2K GitHub Stars
¢ 286 Contributors
¢ 121 Releases (since 2015, current Version: 2.8.1)
¢ Optimized for speed
¢ Flexible deployment options
¢ Unlimited extensibility
¢ Itself based on APIs (Everything is an API!)
Graphic and more details: https://konghq.com/blog/why-kong-is-the-best-api-gateway

11. © OPITZ CONSULTING 2022 / Öffentlich
FLEXIBILITY TO FIT IN ANY ENVIRONMENT
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¢ Kong Gateway is Kubernetes-native
¢ Not everyone is on Kubernetes
¢ IT architectures are usually heterogeneous
¢ Flexibility with respect to the environment
¢ Configuration flexibility depending on
deployment
¢ Supports any database as backend store that
provides a postgres-compatible interface
Graphic source: https://konghq.com/blog/why-kong-is-the-best-api-gateway

12. © OPITZ CONSULTING 2022 / Öffentlich
MODULAR, EXTENSIBLE PLUGIN ARCHITECTURE
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¢ Plugins deliver API Management capabilities
¢ AuthN/AuthZ
¢ Traffic control
¢ Security
¢ Observability
¢ … more see PluginHub or GitHub
¢ Keeps Kong Gateway Core lightweight and
fast
¢ Extensibility through Plugin Development Kit
Graphic source: https://docs.konghq.com/gateway/latest/

13. © OPITZ CONSULTING 2022 / Öffentlich
EASY TO INTEGRATE IN CI/CD PIPELINES
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¢ In Kong Gateway, everything is an API
¢ Resources can be managed using:
¢ Kubernetes CRDs
¢ YAML configuration (via decK)
¢ RESTful Admin API
¢ Possiblity to establish an APIOps approach
that allows for rapid API delivery
Spec-based
API Design
CI/CD
Developers
KONG
GATEWAY
KONG
DEVELOPER
PORTAL
KONG
GATEWAY
KONG
GATEWAY
KONG
GATEWAY

14. © OPITZ CONSULTING 2022 / Öffentlich
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DEMO
https://opitzcloud.canto.global/b/GRBHD

15. © OPITZ CONSULTING 2022 / Öffentlich
FLEXIBLE DEPLOYMENT OPTIONS – STANDALONE MODE
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¢ Kong Gateway Nodes deployed on VM, Bare
Metal or Dockerized
¢ Simple Deployment architecture
¢ Configuration using:
¢ RESTful Admin API
¢ decK
¢ Availability of Gateway Nodes is depending
on the database availability
Postgres-compatible
Database
Gateway
Node
Gateway
Node
Gateway Cluster

16. © OPITZ CONSULTING 2022 / Öffentlich
FLEXIBLE DEPLOYMENT OPTIONS – HYBRID MODE
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¢ Data Plane (DP) Node only has connection to
Control Plane Node
¢ Control Plane (CP) Node Has connection to
Database and manages all DP Nodes
¢ Configuration: Depends on CP Deployment
¢ Benefits:
¢ Deployment flexibility
¢ Increased reliability
¢ Traffic reduction
¢ Increased security
¢ Ease of management
Postgres-compatible
Database
Data Plane
Node
Data Plane
Node
Gateway Cluster
Control Plane
Node
Data Pane
Node
On-Premises Cloud Provider 1

17. © OPITZ CONSULTING 2022 / Öffentlich
FLEXIBLE DEPLOYMENT OPTIONS – KUBERNETES (K8S)
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¢ Kong K8s Ingress Controller translates K8s
resources into Kong Gateway configuration
¢ Deployment
¢ With or without database
¢ Possibility to run in hybrid mode
¢ Configuration using K8s CRDs
¢ Kubernetes can take care about:
¢ High availability
¢ Load Balancing
¢ Auto-scaling …
¢ Attention: there are restrictions, when deployed
without database
Kong Ingress
Controller Kong Proxy

18. © OPITZ CONSULTING 2022 / Öffentlich
KONG IS KING!
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¢ Getting started with API Management using
Kong is easy!
¢ Ease-of-use with respect to implementation
and deployment
¢ Kong Gateway provides lightweight, flexible
architecture
¢ Kong Gateway is developed efficiency in
mind:
¢ Efficient API development
¢ Efficient delivery through automation with
CI/CD
¢ Efficient provisioning using IaC (Ansible,
Terraform)

19. © OPITZ CONSULTING 2022 / Öffentlich
Rumble in the Jungle - API Kickstart with Kong 23
Q & A
20220928_Torch_the_light-
Implementing_Observability_for_Microservice_Architectures

20. © OPITZ CONSULTING 2022 / Öffentlich
IN CASE OF ANY QUESTIONS…
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Sven Bernhardt
Chief Architect / Integration Evangelist |
Kong Champion | Oracle ACE Pro
OPITZ CONSULTING Deutschland GmbH
Kirchstrasse 6, 51647 Gummersbach, Germany
Phone: +49 172 2193529
Mail: sven.bernhardt@opitz-consulting.com
Twitter: @sbernhardt
Blog: https://svenbernhardt.wordpress.com

21. © OPITZ CONSULTING 2022 / Öffentlich
LINKS & REFERENCES
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¢ Kong Blog: https://konghq.com/blog/why-kong-is-the-best-api-gateway
¢ Kong PluginHub: https://docs.konghq.com/hub/
¢ Kong Gateway Documentation: https://docs.konghq.com/gateway/latest/
¢ Tutorial CI/CD: https://konghq.com/blog/api-gateway-ci-cd-pipeline
¢ Kong deck Documentation: https://docs.konghq.com/deck/latest/
¢ Kong Documentation Plugin compatibility: https://docs.konghq.com/kubernetes-ingress-
controller/latest/references/plugin-compatibility/
¢ Kong Documentation Admin API: https://docs.konghq.com/gateway/latest/admin-api/#route-
object
¢ GitHub Demo Repo: https://github.com/svenbernhardt/kong-simple-demo