APILandschaft

The term APILandschaft (API landscape) describes the full set of application programming interfaces of an organization, including internal services, partner APIs, and public APIs. It encompasses endpoints, data models, authentication methods, service contracts, and dependencies, as well as the tooling and governance surrounding them. It maps how APIs interact and how data flows between systems.

Key elements include an API catalog or registry, API gateways, developer portals, security controls, versioning, lifecycle management, and monitoring. Documentation often relies on machine-readable specifications such as OpenAPI/Swagger, RAML, or AsyncAPI, enabling discovery and contract testing. API management platforms help publish, monetize, monitor, and secure APIs.

Architecture often reflects the organization’s service design. In microservices, the APILandschaft shows service boundaries, gateway routing, aggregation layers, and backend-for-frontend patterns. It may include partner APIs accessed via API federations, service meshes, or published REST/GraphQL endpoints. A well-structured landscape emphasizes consistency in design, naming, data models, and security.

Governance and lifecycle cover policies for access, authentication, authorization, data privacy, versioning schemes, deprecation plans, and change management. Regular reviews align APIs with business capabilities, regulatory requirements, and technology strategy. Metrics and dashboards track usage, reliability, latency, and security incidents.

Benefits include easier integration, faster development, clear ownership, and controlled exposure of data and services. Challenges include fragmentation, duplication, inconsistent standards, and keeping documentation up to date. A mature APILandschaft supports agility while maintaining governance and risk management.