A leading IT company struggled to maintain operational efficiency, which was beginning to impact go-to-market timelines for new features. This was due to an extensive portfolio of API-run internal services spread across AWS platforms such as Lambda, EC2, ECS, and EKS, making managing, monitoring, and securing operations challenging.
Each service operated independently with a unique endpoint, which led to delays in processing due to a lack of streamlined directing of incoming requests to the appropriate service. This inefficiency led to longer response times and reduced the overall speed at which the company could operate.
The lack of a centralized access point further exacerbated these issues, increasing the risk of errors and making it difficult to maintain a seamless flow of information. With separate authentication and authorization mechanisms for each service, the security protocols became fragmented and harder to manage. This increased the risk of security breaches and added to the complexity of maintaining and updating the security measures, thereby consuming valuable time and resources.
Further incompatibility issues arose from the need to transform requests and responses. Every service had to ensure that its communication protocols were aligned with the others, which often resulted in errors and the need for additional troubleshooting. Diagnosing issues required more effort and time without a unified logging and monitoring system, which led to slower resolution and increased downtime. Disrupted service quality created operational bottlenecks downstream, negatively affecting user satisfaction.
Streamlining API architecture with AWS services
Turning to Persistent for our decade-long partnership with AWS, and the deeply embedded relationship that gives us the front-row view of the AWS ecosystem, the company embarked on a transformation to address these operational and security gaps.
Persistent developed a unified API layer centered around AWS API Gateway to manage endpoints for all incoming requests, intelligently routing them to the appropriate backend service, whether hosted on Lambda, EC2, ECS, or EKS. This significantly reduced inefficiencies and errors, streamlining request processing and improving response times.
We then centralized authentication and authorization through custom Lambda-based authorizers to ensure that only validated requests reached the microservices, thus enhancing security by reducing fragmentation and potential vulnerabilities. To facilitate seamless communication between clients and services, we configured and mapped templates for request and response with modified headers and body formats, resolving compatibility issues.
To ensure system observability and proactive resolution, Persistent leveraged Amazon CloudWatch, providing real-time monitoring, logging, and alerting on API usage and performance. This reduced downtime and improved overall system reliability.
Improved operational efficiency, faster time to market
The unified API layer with streamlined, secure interactions addressed the challenges of a fragmented service architecture, enhancing agility, security, and efficiency, enabling the client to go to market with new features 40% faster, with seamless development and deployment of new APIs.
Enhanced security, made possible by centralized authentication and authorization protocols, reduced potential vulnerabilities. Integration with CloudWatch facilitated faster issue detection and resolution, improving system reliability and overall developer efficiency. Streamlined request routing ensured service compatibility, leading to smoother internal operations and reduced downtime.
