Using Kong as a forward proxy

[amit...@gmail.com]

Hello,

I am evaluating Kong to be used as a forward API proxy. Through gitter chat discussion I got to know that couple of Kong clients already do so. I would like to get a deeper understanding for some of the below aspects of a forward proxy

• How does Kong provide rate limiting, quota management, policy enforcement when acting as a forward proxy?
• Can Kong batch API requests made by my application to third party vendor?
• Can it perform data type conversions i.e. from SOAP to REST or vice versa? If so how does it achieve this feature?
• Can it be configured to manage failover if the API vendors provide multiple api endpoints?

I am assuming Kong should be able to provide the basic features like api call monitoring, caching and logging. Kindly share your inputs on the above points and any other benefits of a forward API proxy from your experiences with Kong's usage.

Thanks,

Amit.

[Augusto Marietti]

Did you read the docs?

https://getkong.org/about/

https://getkong.org/docs/

[amit...@gmail.com]

Yes I have read them. I understand that Kong acts as a proxy layer that sits between the API and the client. It has a flexible plugin architecture that allows extension. I have been through the plugin gallery that includes most of the features that I mention in my original post. The intention with starting a discussion was that these plugins/features of an API gateway are being presented from a reverse proxy standpoint. Theoretically they seem applicable for a forward proxy too. I wanted to know for any practical experiences or case studies of using Kong as a forward proxy. Do you have some insights?

Thanks!

[Augusto Marietti]

there is an issue here: https://github.com/Mashape/kong/issues/214