Introduction
A very common discussion to have with enterprises around Azure API Management (“APIM”) is the aspect of network integration. At the end of the day, the response to that is very simple… Only the developer & premium SKU allow VNET integration. The integration is achieved by doing “injection”, which means that the service is “dedicated” to you and “the machines” are placed directly in your VNET. Azure APIM does not leverage private link (yet?)… Which then opens the next discussion, as the premium SKU is about 3,42 Euro per hour, where the basic SKU floats at about 20 Eurocent per hour. At this point, for most organizations, the cost impact will take priority over the most optimal design. Where today’s post will take a look at the various options at hand.
Update (March 2022)
Since the initial post, the ability to leverage private endpoints have been made available ; https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/api-management/private-endpoint. This concept will probably be more interesting to you than the approaches mentioned in this post!
Flavors / Tiers
When taking a look at the pricing info, you will notice there are multiple flavors you can choose from ;
- The consumption tier is the one where you are charged for the amount of calls you make. It is an awesome model in terms of linking your business outcome to the cost model at hand. The downside is, that is does not offer a developer portal or any typical enterprise features (like VNET integration or a self-hosted gateway).
- The basic and standard tiers are economic tiers at both about 45 and 130 Euros per month. They do include a developer portal.
- The developer and premium tiers are the ones typically picked by enterprises due to their VNET integration, HA/DR options (for Premium) and the self-hosted gateway.
Continue reading “Azure API Management – What are my networking options?” →