AZ-305 Question 181
Single answerAn e-commerce company is developing a suite of microservices to handle product information, user profiles, orders, and payments. They want to expose these microservices through a single, secure, and scalable public endpoint with built-in analytics, rate limiting, and easy policy updates. Which Azure service would you recommend to achieve this solution?
- A
Deploy an Azure Application Gateway in front of each microservice
- B
Use Azure API Management to centralize requests and apply policies
- C
Containerize each microservice with Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) and provide public endpoints for each service
- D
Implement Azure Logic Apps to orchestrate calls among the microservices
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: B
Explanation
Azure API Management is the preferred choice for unifying multiple microservices under a single, secure endpoint, applying policies such as rate limiting, and providing analytics and a developer portal. Official documentation recommends Azure API Management for scenarios where fine-grained control over API traffic, security, and publish/subscribe analytics are required. For more details, refer to the Microsoft documentation at https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/api-management.
- A. Incorrect.
Option 1: Deploying an Azure Application Gateway can provide Layer 7 load balancing, SSL termination, and WAF features. However, it does not offer robust policy management, rate limiting, or a built-in developer portal for API consumption. Hence, it does not fully meet the requirement for a single, manageable public endpoint with advanced policies and analytics.
- B. Correct.
Option 2: Azure API Management is designed for exactly this scenario. It provides a single endpoint for multiple back-end services, advanced policy definitions (such as rate limiting), usage analytics, and straightforward service updates. It also offers a developer portal, making it easy to onboard external users and partners.
- C. Incorrect.
Option 3: Hosting microservices on AKS with unique public endpoints for each service does not consolidate them into a single, manageable endpoint. It also lacks built-in features like usage analytics, rate limiting, and a unified developer portal.
- D. Incorrect.
Option 4: Azure Logic Apps is an integration service that can orchestrate workflows among different systems, but it is not primarily designed for creating a unified public API with policies, rate limiting, and usage analytics. It could complement an API strategy, but it doesn't provide the centralized API management features required in this scenario.