Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate (KCNA)Cloud Native ArchitectureEasy
A global e-commerce company is migrating its legacy monolithic application to a cloud-native microservices architecture. They need a centralized entry point for all external clients to access their various backend services, handle authentication, rate limiting, and request routing across multiple services. Which cloud-native component is designed for this purpose?
- AMessage Broker
- BService Mesh
- CLoad Balancer
- DAPI Gateway
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: D. API Gateway
An API Gateway acts as a single entry point for clients accessing microservices. It can handle cross-cutting concerns like authentication, rate limiting, request routing, and protocol translation, offloading these responsibilities from individual microservices.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. A Message Broker facilitates asynchronous communication between services but doesn't serve as a centralized external access point or handle request routing for synchronous calls.
- B. A Service Mesh manages internal service-to-service communication, not external client access to the microservices.
- C. A Load Balancer distributes network traffic, but typically doesn't handle application-level concerns like authentication or fine-grained routing for microservices.
API Gateway
A server that acts as a single entry point for a group of microservices. It routes requests, composes responses, and performs cross-cutting concerns like authentication, rate limiting, and logging.
- Single entry point for external clients.
- Handles request routing and composition.
- Manages cross-cutting concerns (auth, rate limiting).
- Decouples clients from microservice implementation details.
Memory trick: Gateway guards and guides gracefully.