Modern software systems often rely on monolithic codebases where APIs are tightly coupled with the rest of the application logic. This setup can make it challenging for developers to isolate, test, and deploy specific API endpoints. NanoAPI addresses these challenges by enabling developers to extract individual endpoints from a monolithic or even a microservice application and isolate them into standalone units. These units can then be independently tested and deployed as serverless functions or microservices.
API isolation is the process of extracting a single API endpoint, along with its necessary dependencies, from a larger codebase. We refer to this isolated APIs as "Nanoservices". A Nanoservice allows the endpoint to function independently without relying on the entire monolith, while keeping shared functionality intact and respecting the DRY principle. With NanoAPI, this process becomes automated and seamless, giving developers the tools to:
NanoAPI offers a straightforward workflow to help developers isolate API endpoints:
napi offers a split command which refactors the codebase to decouple the target endpoint from the rest of the system.This process is designed to save time and reduce errors, enabling developers to focus on building and improving their applications.
Creating Nanoservices can be particularly useful in the following scenarios:
Modernizing Legacy Systems: For organizations with monolithic codebases, isolating APIs enables a gradual shift towards a microservices architecture without requiring a complete rewrite.
Improving Performance: Isolating high-traffic endpoints allows them to scale independently, optimizing resource usage and ensuring responsiveness during peak loads.
Risk and Downtime Mitigation: By isolating critical endpoints or problem endpoints, developers can reduce the risk of system-wide failures and minimize downtime during maintenance or updates.
Enhancing Security: Sensitive operations, such as payment processing or user authentication, can be isolated to apply stricter security measures and minimize potential vulnerabilities.
Simplifying Development: Isolated APIs allow different teams to work on endpoints without interfering with each other, streamlining the development process.
Optimizing Costs: Deploying isolated APIs as serverless functions can reduce costs by utilizing a pay-per-use model rather than maintaining always-on infrastructure.
Maintaining Legacy Functionality: For endpoints that are no longer actively developed but still required, isolating them can ensure they continue to function without impacting the rest of the system. In this case a specific tag of a codebase can be used as the source of the Nanoservice which can then be deployed as serverless functionality to reduce costs.
Imagine you have a monolithic application and once every quarter your finance team calls an endpoint that generates a report. This endpoint fails nearly every time its called, causing unplanned downtime. As the functionality is critical and best placed with the rest of the business logic, it cannot be removed. However because it only breaks once per quarter, it may be too low on the priority list to fix.
With NanoAPI, you can isolate this endpoint into a Nanoservice. This Nanoservice can be deployed as a serverless function, ensuring it scales automatically to handle the quarterly load. The rest of the application can continue to function as normal, even if the finance report endpoint fails.
Steps to resolve:
napi UI, identify the finance report endpoint and isolate it into a Nanoservice by opening up the endpoint and providing a group name.By isolating the finance report endpoint, you have improved the robustness of your application, reduced downtime, and optimized costs by only paying for the resources when the endpoint is called.
Consider a legacy API that is no longer actively developed but is still required to support existing applications, such as Stripe's date-versioned API. This API is part of a monolithic codebase and is not cost-effective to maintain as part of the main application. By isolating this API into a Nanoservice and deploying it as a serverless function, you can reduce operational costs and ensure the legacy functionality remains available.
Steps to resolve:
napi UI, select the API(s) and isolate into Nanoservices.napi CLI to package the Nanoservices for the specific commit or tag into serverless functions. For easy conversion, tools like AWS SAM or Serverless Framework can be used.By isolating the legacy API into a serverless function, you have reduced operational costs, improved maintainability, and ensured the functionality remains available for existing applications.
Imagine you have an endpoint that is called frequently during peak hours, such as a product recommendation API for an e-commerce platform. During these peak times, the endpoint struggles to handle the load, causing slow response times and timeouts. Furthermore, scaling the endpoint up involves scaling the entire monolithic application, leading to increased costs.
By isolating this endpoint into a Nanoservice and deploying it as a serverless function, you can ensure it scales automatically to handle the increased traffic.
Steps to resolve:
napi UI, identify the product recommendation endpoint and isolate it into a Nanoservice.napi CLI to package the Nanoservice into a serverless function.Imagine you have a monolithic application that includes several endpoints that are rarely called. For this case let's follow the 80-20 rule, where 80% of the endpoints are only called 20% of the time. These endpoints consume resources even when they are not in use, leading to unnecessary costs. By isolating these low-traffic endpoints into Nanoservices and deploying them as serverless functions, you can optimize costs by only paying for the resources when the endpoints are called.
To do this, you will need to have a monitoring tool in place, such as Newrelic, AWS CloudWatch, or a similar tool, to track the usage of each endpoint. Once you have identified the low-traffic endpoints, you can follow these steps:
Steps to resolve:
napi UI, identify the low-traffic endpoints and isolate them into Nanoservices.napi CLI to package the Nanoservices into serverless functions.The benefits here are twofold: you optimize costs by only paying for the resources when the endpoints are called, and you improve the performance of the main application by offloading the low-traffic endpoints to serverless functions.
Nanoservices are a powerful paradigm that can help developers improve the robustness, security, and cost efficiency of their applications. By extracting individual endpoints from a monolithic codebase and isolating them into standalone units, developers can enhance the reliability, security, and scalability of their systems. NanoAPI provides a seamless workflow to facilitate API isolation, enabling developers to identify, isolate, refactor, and deploy individual endpoints as Nanoservices. By leveraging NanoAPI's capabilities, developers can unlock the benefits of API isolation and build more resilient, secure, and cost-effective applications.
NanoAPI makes it easy to unlock the potential of API isolation. By decoupling endpoints from your monolithic codebase, you can build a more robust, secure, and cost-effective system.
Ready to isolate your first API endpoint? Download NanoAPI or Get in Touch with Us to learn more!