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Azure API Management
Secure, monitor and scale your APIs with expert support every step of the way
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Azure API Management
Azure API Management is a fully managed service from Microsoft that allows organisations to publish, secure, monitor and manage APIs through a central gateway. It provides a consistent way to control how APIs are exposed and consumed across internal systems, external partners and public platforms.
With support for REST and SOAP, it enables authentication, rate limiting, transformation and monitoring policies, all without requiring changes to the underlying services. Built for hybrid and cloud environments, it integrates directly with other Azure services to support complex architectures.
Our Clients
Businesses that have trusted us to implement Microsoft Azure solutions successfully
Key features of Azure API Management
The essential features and capabilities of the Azure API Management solution include:
Flexible API Gateway
Acts as a front door for APIs to manage traffic, enforce policies and route requests securely.
Developer Portal
Customisable, self-service portal for developers to discover, test and subscribe to APIs.
Policy Enforcement
Apply rules such as rate limiting, caching, IP filtering, CORS, validation and transformation without changing backend code.
Security & Authentication
Supports OAuth 2.0, JWT, subscription keys and other access control mechanisms to secure APIs.
Analytics & Monitoring
Get real-time insights and usage metrics with built-in dashboards or integrate with Azure Monitor and Application Insights.
Multi-Region Deployment
Deploy across multiple Azure regions for high availability and performance.
Versioning & Revisions
Manage multiple versions and revisions of your APIs without downtime.
DevOps Integration
Automate deployments with ARM templates, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, or REST APIs.
Hybrid & Multi-Cloud Support
Extend API management to on-premises and other clouds using Azure Arc or self-hosted gateway.
Benefits of Azure API Management
Centralised API Management
Manage all your internal, external and third-party APIs in one unified platform.
Scalability and High Availability
Scale effortlessly with Azure’s global infrastructure, handling increasing loads while maintaining high availability and minimal downtime.
Improved Security
Protect your APIs with built-in security measures including authentication, authorisation, IP filtering, rate limiting and other built-in policies.
Cost Efficiency
Reduce costs by reusing APIs, optimising access management and reducing the overhead of manual development and maintenance tasks.
Faster Time-to-Market
Publish and expose APIs quickly to developers and partners, accelerating integration and enabling faster innovation cycles across your organisation.
DevOps & Automation Ready
Automate deployment and updates through GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps or CI/CD pipelines, streamlining operations with ARM templates or Bicep for consistency and speed.
How we help with Azure API Management
At Claria, we provide end-to-end support for Azure API Management. Our approach is designed to deliver tailored solutions that meet your unique needs, from initial planning to ongoing optimisation.
Our Azure API Management Services
Migration to Azure API Management
We assist you in migrating your existing APIs to Azure API Management, ensuring a smooth transition from legacy platforms while maintaining business continuity.
Data Governance & Compliance
We help you implement robust data governance practices around your APIs, ensuring compliance with relevant regulations like GDPR, HIPAA and others.
Azure API Management Training
Our training programmes are tailored to your team’s roles and expertise. We offer practical, hands-on sessions covering the design, deployment, management and monitoring of APIs within Azure.
Managed Services & Support
We provide ongoing support and maintenance for your Azure API Management platform. Our services include monitoring, troubleshooting, regular updates and optimisation.
API Strategy Development
We help you define and implement an API strategy that aligns with your business objectives. From identifying key integration points to developing a roadmap for API adoption.
Team Augmentation
We provide skilled Azure API Management professionals to work alongside your in-house team. Whether you need additional development expertise, architects, or support staff, we provide flexible resources to meet your project requirements and accelerate delivery.
Implementation and Deployment
Our team manages the end-to-end implementation of Azure API Management. From setting up your API gateways to deploying policies for security, rate-limiting and data transformations.
Project Management / Delivery
We manage every phase of your API implementation, ensuring that each project is delivered on time, within budget and aligned with your business objectives.
Certified Azure API Management Licensing Provider
At Claria, we are a certified Azure partner specialising in the licensing and implementation of Azure API Management. Whether you are starting a new deployment, expanding an existing environment, or reviewing your current licensing, we help ensure that you choose the right Azure API Management licensing model for your organisation’s needs.
How does Azure API Management licensing work?
Azure API Management follows a subscription-based pricing model, with several tiers that cater to different business needs. These include the Developer, Basic, Standard and Premium tiers, each designed to provide a scalable solution depending on your organisation’s size, traffic volume and feature requirements.
We guide you in selecting the most appropriate tier based on factors like:
API traffic volume
Required security and compliance features
Support needs and geographical scaling
Additional services like VNet, multi-region deployment, or custom domains
Azure API Management Pricing and Cost
How much does Azure API Management cost?
Azure API Management offers a flexible pricing model that adapts to your organisation’s needs, ensuring that you only pay for the resources you use while enabling scalability and flexibility. With multiple pricing tiers available, organisations can select the most appropriate option based on the volume of API calls, the number of developers and the required features.
See Azure pricesAzure API Management Pricing Tiers
Developer Tier
This tier is ideal for development, testing, and non-production environments. It offers full API management capabilities at a lower cost, but with limited scalability and no SLA.
Basic Tier
Suitable for small to medium-sized production environments, the Basic tier offers better performance, scalability, and more advanced API management features compared to the Developer tier.
Standard Tier
The Standard tier is designed for larger production environments and provides more robust features, including multi-region deployment, custom domains, and enhanced security. It’s ideal for organisations that need higher performance and availability.
Premium Tier
The Premium tier offers the full range of Azure API Management capabilities, including advanced features such as additional regions, VNet (virtual network) connectivity, and customisable SLAs. This tier is best for large-scale enterprise environments with demanding API needs.
How Claria helps you optimise costs
At Claria, we go beyond just providing licensing advice, we ensure that you're getting maximum value for your investment. Our experts work with your team to:
Analyse your usage patterns and scale requirements
Recommend the most cost-effective pricing tier and configuration
Support ongoing optimisation to keep your costs predictable and manageable
How Azure API Management works
Azure API Management acts as a gateway between your backend services and the users who consume your APIs. It enables you to securely publish, manage, monitor and protect your APIs.
Get in touchHere's how it works in simple steps:
Import or Create APIs
You can import existing APIs from OpenAPI, WSDL, or other formats, or build new ones directly in Azure. These APIs are registered in the API Management portal.
Apply Policies
Policies are rules or logic that modify how requests and responses are handled. You can use policies to enforce security, limit rate of access (throttling), transform data formats, add caching and more, without changing the backend.
Secure Access
API Management integrates with various authentication and authorisation mechanisms including OAuth 2.0, JWT and Azure Active Directory. This ensures only authorised users or apps can access your APIs.
Monitor and Analyse Usage
Built-in analytics allow you to track API performance, usage trends and diagnose issues through real-time dashboards. This helps optimise the API lifecycle and improve user experiences.
Publish to Developers
A self-service developer portal is automatically generated, allowing internal or external developers to discover, test and consume your APIs. Documentation and testing tools are included for ease of use
When to use Azure API Management
Azure API Management provides the most value in the following scenarios:
Exposing APIs to external partners or customers
Securely publish your APIs to external users, ensuring controlled access and enabling smooth integration with external systems and third-party applications.
Unifying access to multiple backend services
Aggregate multiple services, whether microservices, on-premises applications, or cloud services, into a single, unified API gateway providing a consistent and simplified API surface.
Enforcing security and compliance policies
Protect your APIs by applying essential security measures such as authentication (OAuth, JWT), rate limiting, IP filtering and CORS. Ensure compliance with regulatory standards and organisational security protocols.
Monitoring API usage and performance
Use built-in analytics, logging and monitoring tools to gain real-time insights into API usage, identify performance bottlenecks, detect anomalies and optimise resource consumption.
Facilitating developer engagement through a portal
Offer a branded, customisable self-service portal for developers, making it easy to discover, test and onboard with your APIs.
Azure API Management Considerations
When adopting Azure API Management (APIM), there are several key factors to consider to ensure the solution aligns with your business goals, scalability needs and security requirements. Here are the main considerations to keep in mind: When adopting Azure API Management (APIM), there are several key factors to consider to ensure the solution aligns with your business goals, scalability needs and security requirements. Here are the main considerations to keep in mind:
What’s the long-term API strategy?
Consider how Azure API Management fits into your broader integration roadmap. Are you managing internal APIs only, or will you expose them to partners and customers over time?
How mature is your current API ecosystem?
Evaluate the governance, documentation, versioning and security practices you have in place. Azure API Management offers extensive capabilities, but the value depends on how mature and prepared your organisation is to leverage them.
Are your teams prepared to manage APIs at scale?
Beyond development, API management involves lifecycle ownership, analytics, access control and user engagement. Do you have or plan to build these capabilities in-house?
What’s your hybrid or multi-cloud strategy?
Azure API Management can bridge services across on-prem, hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Assess whether this flexibility is critical to your architecture.
How will you measure success?
Think about KPIs such as reduced onboarding time, increased API reuse, improved security posture, or performance improvements. Having a measurement plan ensures you can show ROI early.
Why choose Claria?
Your trusted Azure API Management partner
We are a trusted Microsoft Azure partner committed to delivering tailored, scalable solutions for your Azure API Management needs. Our in-depth understanding of Azure, combined with our experience in integration, security and governance, enables us to provide solutions that not only meet your current needs but also grow with your business.
Here’s why organisations choose us:
Deep expertise with Microsoft Azure
As a certified Microsoft partner, we bring specialised knowledge of Azure API Management and its full capabilities, ensuring you get the most out of your investment.
End-to-end services
We offer comprehensive services that cover every aspect of API management, helping you achieve long-term success.
Security & Governance first
We understand the importance of security and compliance. Our team ensures your APIs are secure, your data is protected and all governance requirements are met, so you can operate with confidence.
Tailored solutions for your business
We don’t offer one-size-fits-all solutions. Our approach is personalised to your business, taking into account your unique requirements, architecture and future scalability.
Proven track record
We’ve helped organisations across various sectors, from healthcare to finance, optimise their API strategies. Our proven methodology ensures a smooth transition, effective deployment and sustained performance.
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Azure API Management FAQs
You can secure the connection between Azure API Management and your backend services using the following methods:
HTTPS (SSL/TLS): Ensure all communication is encrypted.
Client Certificate Authentication: Authenticate API Management with your backend using client certificates.
OAuth 2.0 or JWT Bearer Tokens: Use token-based authentication to authorise access.
IP Whitelisting: Restrict backend access to API Management’s outbound IP addresses.
Mutual TLS (mTLS): Enforce mutual authentication using client and server certificates.
Azure Virtual Network (VNet) Integration: Isolate traffic using private networking and eliminate public exposure.
Yes, you can move an Azure API Management instance to a different Azure subscription, as long as both subscriptions are:
In the same Azure Active Directory (AAD) tenant
Located in the same region
The move must be done using the Azure Portal, PowerShell, or Azure CLI and there may be some downtime during the process. Always review Microsoft's official guidance or talk with an Azure partner before proceeding.
You can manage Azure API Management programmatically using several tools and APIs:
Azure REST APIs
Azure CLI
Azure PowerShell
ARM Templates / Bicep
Azure API Management supports multiple authentication methods to secure access to your APIs. These include:
Subscription Keys
OAuth 2.0 / OpenID Connect
Client Certificate Authentication
Basic Authentication
Managed Identity
API Key validation
These methods can be combined or layered depending on your security needs, offering flexibility for both internal and external API consumers.
Create a Version Set:
In the Azure portal, create a version set under your API.
Choose a versioning scheme (see below).
Choose a Versioning Scheme: Azure APIM supports these versioning methods.
Path-based: e.g., /v1/products, /v2/products
Query string-based: e.g., /products?api-version=1.0
Header-based: e.g., set api-version: 1.0 in the request header
Azure API Management (APIM) and Azure App Service serve different purposes in the Azure ecosystem.
Azure APIM is designed to manage, secure and monitor APIs, providing a central gateway for all API traffic. It allows you to enforce policies like authentication, rate limiting and versioning, making it ideal for organisations that expose APIs to external clients or partners.
On the other hand, Azure App Service is a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) that allows you to host web applications, RESTful APIs and mobile backends. While App Service enables you to deploy and run APIs, it doesn’t provide the advanced API management features that APIM does.
In many cases, both services work together: App Service hosts your API and APIM manages access and usage.
Azure API Management (APIM) is considered a Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering. Here is why:
Managed infrastructure: Microsoft handles the underlying infrastructure, scaling, availability and updates.
Developer-friendly tools: You get built-in features like API gateway, throttling, analytics and developer portals without having to build or manage them yourself.
Configuration over customisation: You configure how APIs are exposed and consumed, but you don’t have to manage the actual runtime environment.
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