Open source products are our foundation
API7.ai and Apache APISIX were born in 2019, which are shorter than similar API gateway/proxy open source software, and APISIX is no support or endorsement from big companies behind. It will make our infancy from 0 to 1 challenging in the short term, but it is also our driving force to keep moving forward in a long time.
As a latecomer and a start-up company, API7.ai does not have any capital, brand, influence, and sales advantages. The only thing that has a chance to break through is the product! So we open-sourced APISIX and donated it to the Apache Software Foundation. Only by turning Apache APISIX into the best open-source infrastructure in the industry can commercial companies have a chance of success.
Let us integrate into the most extensive and diverse engineers, win the trust, and grow with the most advanced technology companies with the most complex scenarios, which is the foundation that API7.ai will never change, and our core competitiveness and moat.
Ecology can flourish
APIs and microservices are the core of the developer ecosystem, which not only includes API ecosystems such as the API full life cycle, API security, observability, and zero trust, but also involves developer experience, identity authentication, data sovereignty, serverless, and service mesh. More importantly, as more and more enterprises become multi-cloud and hybrid cloud architectures and rely more and more on various SaaS services, Apache APISIX also needs to integrate with multiple public clouds and SaaS ecosystems.
As the infra software for processing API traffic, Apache APISIX handles various 7-layer and 4-layer protocols including HTTP, HTTPS, gRPC, WebSocket, MQTT, etc. initiated by downstream such as PC, browser, mobile APP, IoT device, etc.; For the upstream connection, message middleware, APM, authentication system, log system, database, etc.; it also needs to be compatible with various service discovery, service registration, and circuit breaker components.
API gateway is only one of the overall ecosystem of APIs and microservices. Only by prospering the entire ecosystem and achieving a win-win situation can Apache APISIX win the favor of more developers, and API7.ai will have the opportunity to bring more excellent value to customers.