Designing API-First Enterprise Architectures on Azure: A guide for architects and developers to expedite digital transformation with API-led architectures

Designing API-First Enterprise Architectures on Azure
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Preface
	Who this book is for
	What this book covers
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Section 1: API-Led Architecture in the Digital Economy
Chapter 1: Evolution of Enterprise Solution Architectures
	History of application architectures in an enterprise
		From monoliths to SOA and microservices
	IT strategies in the modern world
		Outlook for digital transformation
	The emergence of API-led architectures
		The complexity problem
	The importance of API-led architecture
	Case study
		About Packt Insurance Inc.
	Summary
	Further reading
Chapter 2: APIs as Digital Connectors
	The connected enterprise
	The role of APIs in digital experiences
		Major benefits of API-led connectivity
		APIs serve as digital enablers for an enterprise
	An API is a digital service
		API architecture within an enterprise
		API classification by management and access pattern
	Packt Insurance Inc. – an API-led architecture strategy
		Domain decomposition
		Service and persona map
		API composability using microservices
	Summary
	Further reading
Section 2: Build Reliable API-Centric Solutions
Chapter 3: Architecture Principles and API Styles
	Architecture principles
	Evolve architecture blueprints iteratively
	Constructs of an API
		API operations or service contract
		Data contract or entity schema
		API endpoint
		Communication protocol (application layer)
		Input and output – the request-response pair
	Popular API architecture styles
		The tunneling or RPC style
		RI (or REST) style
		Query or GraphQL style
		Event-driven or asynchronous messaging style
		Hypermedia style
		Other API styles
	Finding the right style for your API use cases
	Serverless APIs – accelerators for innovation
		Benefits of using serverless computing for APIs
		Serverless architecture use cases
	Implementing API-led architectures in Azure
		Reference architecture for an enterprise API platform
		Azure services for hosting API solutions
		Service Fabric
		Additional services for building end-to-end solutions
	Case study elaboration – Packt Insurance Inc.
		API style fitment analysis
		Microservices and API styles
		API platform architecture
	Summary
	Additional reading
Chapter 4: Assuring the Quality of the API Service (or Product)
	The ISO 25010 standard for software product quality
		Functional Suitability
		Operability/Usability
		Reliability
		Performance Efficiency
		Security
		Compatibility
		Maintainability
		Portability
	Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM)
	The Azure Well-Architected Framework
		Benefits of using WAF
		WAF recommended practices
	API security considerations
		Core principles – the Security Frame analysis
		The Security Development Lifecycle (SDL)
	Reliability through scale, performance, availability
		Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)
		How do you ensure appropriate reliability?
		Commonly used SLOs for an API service
		Defining, implementing, and measuring SLI metrics for an API platform
		Using SLIs to calculate the initial SLOs for your API service
	Modeling performance based on scale requirements
		The API (or application) performance management lifecycle
		Checklist for development teams
	High-availability patterns
		High-availability calculation
	Architecting for operations
		Logging, monitoring, and alerts
		Feature flags
	Understanding maintainability
		Proactive maintainability
		Reactive maintainability
	Tracking objectives using a quality dashboard
	Case study elaboration – Packt Insurance Inc.
		Important SLOs for the API platform
		Architecture backlog – focus on quality and handle technical debt
	Summary
	Further reading
Chapter 5: RESTful APIs – the New Web
	Technical requirements
	Understanding RESTful APIs
		Using HTTP verbs for your CRUD actions correctly
		History of inter-machine application communication
	REST architecture constraints
	Advantages and challenges of building a RESTful API
		Advantages
		Common challenges
	Exploring the checklist for building RESTful APIs
		Contract-first design for your REST APIs
	OpenAPI Specification
		OpenAPI definition file format
		Visualizing the API definition file using the Swagger extension in VSCode
	Summary
	Further reading
Chapter 6: API Design Practices
	Understanding API design considerations
		Coupling
		Chattiness
		Client complexity
		Cognitive complexity
		Caching
		Discoverability
		Versioning
	Exploring recommended practices
		Design should adhere to the SOLID principles
		Design should be flexible to change
		Use the Decision Analysis and Resolution technique
		Produce documentation as per industry standards
		Secure by design
		Optimized for response time
		API testing
		Size and granularity
		Content negotiation
		Prefer stateless over stateful services
		User-digestible response codes and messages
		Using cloud design patterns
	Implementing an API service using design patterns
		Data-driven CRUD API
		Command and Query Responsibility Segregation (CQRS)
		Event Store API (Event Sourcing)
		Clean architecture
		Backends for Frontends (BFF)
	Developer toolbox
	Summary
	Further reading
Chapter 7: Accelerating through DevOps Essentials
	Business objectives and key results
	The DevOps Dojo framework
		The benefits of having a good DevOps strategy
	DevOps metrics and their importance
	Identifying the maturity index for your enterprise
	The power of GitHub and Azure DevOps
	DevOps in practice
		Capability – continuous planning
		Capability – continuous integration
		Capability – continuous delivery
		Capability – continuous operations
		Capability – continuous quality
		Capability – continuous security
		Capability – continuous collaboration
		Capability – continuous improvement
		Pillar – culture
		Pillar – lean product
		Pillar – architecture
		Pillar – technology
	Tracking DevOps initiatives in the backlog
	Summary
	Further reading
Section 3: Deliver Business Value for a Modern Enterprise
Chapter 8: API-Centric Enterprise Integrations
	Exploring EAI
		Key initiatives toward a digital enterprise
		Modernizing legacy applications using APIs
		API use cases in the enterprise
	The rise of iPaaS
		What is an iPaaS platform?
		Types of integrations
		Benefits of iPaaS
		iPaaS architecture for the Azure cloud
	Implementing EAI patterns using iPaaS
	API management
		API gateways
		API publishing, control, and governance
		Developer portal
		API versioning and life cycle management
		Analytics and metrics
	Understanding Azure Integration Services
		iPaaS building blocks of Azure – explained
		Using Azure Integration Services
	Summary
	Further reading
Chapter 9: APIs as a Monetized Product
	APIs as digital assets
		Growth of the API economy
		The API value chain
	Exploring business drivers of monetization
		Expand the channels of revenue streams
		Capture analytics for improved marketing strategies
		Enhance brand value through customer loyalty
		Foster innovation through new product capabilities
		Stay relevant in the marketplace
	API monetization models
		Free
		Consumer pays
		Consumer gets paid
		Indirect monetization
	API productization in Azure
		Requirements summary
		Solution approach
		API products and publishing in APIM
		Subscription management
		API consumption – rate limits and quotas
		Measuring API consumption
		API analytics
	Summary
	Further reading
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