Issue link: https://axway.uberflip.com/i/1137730
6 axway.com Streamlining orchestration Figure 2 shows a mesh app and service architecture and the kind of complex dependencies that can arise when developers and architecture orchestrate multiple APIs and microservices across several different applications. When APIs first appeared in enterprise architecture as Edge APIs, and specified the "North to South" flow of information—meaning, the API invocation and response went up and down the application stack from consumer to service. This is less and less the case today. Apps now routinely invoke APIs which will call microservices that exist elsewhere in the architecture. They represent an "East-West Traffic" or service-to-service flow of information. This enable services to speak directly to each other through micro gateways instead of having them all tunnel through a single edge Apps Application 1 Application 3 Application 2 Edge APIs East-West Traffic North-South Traffic API Orchestration & Mediation gateway. The east-west mode of traffic improves agility and resiliency. The API and microservices management platform can set up an API orchestration and a mediation layer between the Apps, edge APIs and connected microservices. The platform provides a Service Mesh, typically through ISTIO, to enable reliable, monitored East-West interactions between microservices amidst multiple applications. The platform also makes possible a streamlined orchestration process. Given the kind of dependencies shown in Figure 2, this is very much needed in today's architecture. Locating microservices, making the connection and then monitoring the results takes a powerful management platform. Figure 2: Microservices and API orchestration and dependencies can create highly complex performance problems that are challenging to solve. Without the right diagnostic and monitoring tools.