Kong 101 introduction workshop held at Cloudland 2023. Workshop materials in Git: https://github.com/svenbernhardt/kong101 Abstract: We encounter APIs every day, which are present in almost all aspects of our daily lives. For example, when we pay with a card at the supermarket, the communication required for the transaction takes place in the background via APIs. This poses security risks and measures need to be taken to ensure that only authorized consumers can access APIs and that APIs are available 24/7. An API gateway can help in this regard by acting as a central access point for APIs and helping to establish a common policy layer that decouples API consumers and providers. Kong is an open-source API gateway implementation designed for speed, scalability, and flexibility. It is platform and system independent, making it ideal for building distributed API environments. This workshop will cover the basic concepts of Kong, the gateway architecture, ways to set up a Kong environment, and how to deploy and configure APIs. Through hands-on exercises, participants will have the opportunity to experience for themselves how easy and intuitive working with APIs using Kong can be.

1. © OPITZ CONSULTING 2023 / Öffentlich
Kong 101 – Jumpstart into the world of APIs 1
Brühl, 2023-06-21
Sven Bernhardt
KONG 101 - JUMPSTART
INTO THE WORLD OF APIS

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WORKSHOP-MATERIAL DOWNLOAD
Kong 101 – Jumpstart into the world of APIs 2
https://bit.ly/449Zggm

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THAT‘S ME
Kong 101 – Jumpstart into the world of APIs 3
Sven Bernhardt
Cloud-Native enthusiast, API & integration geek. Always curious how new
technologies and concepts can help to make things more valuable and efficient.
@sbernhardt
https://svenbernhardt.wordpress.com/
Chief Architect / Integration Evangelist
OPITZ CONSULTING Deutschland
GmbH

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API GATEWAY
Kong 101 – Jumpstart into the world of APIs 4
¢ Single entry point for clients to access
Services
¢ No matter the implementation technology
¢ No matter the deployment model (Monolithic
or µService)
¢ Provides a consistent governance model
¢ Decouples Client and Service implementation
¢ Is deployed separately in its own instance
¢ Deployment models:
¢ Bundled data and control plane
¢ Independent data and control plane
Source: https://tinyurl.com/yxbds3cd

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Business
Logic (B)
Policy (P)
SHARED POLICY LAYER
Kong 101 – Jumpstart into the world of APIs 5
OTHER
MONOLITH
MICROSERVICES 3RD-PARTY
Routing
Load Balancing
Authentication
Authorization
Logs & Metrics
Rate Limiting
Caching
Validation
Transformation
MULTI-CLOUD & KUBERNETES
ON-PREMISE
HOSTING
B
Shared Policy Layer (Kong Gateway)
B B B B B B
B B B
Serverless
(e.g. AWS
Lambda)
More applications and services
More languages and protocols
REST}
{
More deployment types

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KONG API GATEWAY
Kong 101 – Jumpstart into the world of APIs 6
¢ Build on Open Source, driven by the community
¢ 35.1K GitHub Stars
¢ 338 Contributors
¢ 130 Releases (since 2015, current Version: 3.3.0)
¢ Optimized for speed
¢ Flexible deployment options
¢ Unlimited extensibility
¢ Itself based on APIs (Everything is an API!)
Graphic and more details: https://konghq.com/blog/why-kong-is-the-best-api-gateway

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FLEXIBILITY TO FIT IN ANY ENVIRONMENT
Kong 101 – Jumpstart into the world of APIs 7
¢ Kong Gateway is Kubernetes-native
¢ Not everyone is on Kubernetes
¢ IT architectures are usually heterogeneous
¢ Flexibility with respect to the environment
¢ Configuration flexibility depending on
deployment
¢ Supports any database as backend store that
provides a postgres-compatible interface
Graphic source: https://konghq.com/blog/why-kong-is-the-best-api-gateway

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MODULAR, EXTENSIBLE PLUGIN ARCHITECTURE
Kong 101 – Jumpstart into the world of APIs 8
¢ Plugins deliver API Management capabilities
¢ AuthN/AuthZ
¢ Traffic control
¢ Security
¢ Observability
¢ … more see PluginHub or GitHub
¢ Keeps Kong Gateway Core lightweight and
fast
¢ Extensibility through Plugin Development Kit
Graphic source: https://docs.konghq.com/gateway/latest/

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EASY TO INTEGRATE IN CI/CD PIPELINES
Kong 101 – Jumpstart into the world of APIs 9
¢ In Kong Gateway, everything is an API
¢ Resources can be managed using:
¢ Kubernetes CRDs
¢ YAML configuration (via decK)
¢ RESTful Admin API
¢ Possiblity to establish an APIOps approach
that allows for rapid API delivery

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BASIC CONCEPTS – ROUTES & SERVICES
Kong 101 – Jumpstart into the world of APIs 10
µService
2
µService
1
Client 1
Client 2
Client 3 COTS
GET
POST, PUT, DELETE
GET, POST,
PUT, DELETE
GET, POST,
PUT, DELETE
Clients
Services
Routes
Backend
apps
Kong
Gateway

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BASIC CONCEPTS – UPSTREAMS, CONSUMERS, PLUGINS
Kong 101 – Jumpstart into the world of APIs 11
µService
2a
µService
1
Route Service
Client 1
GET, POST, PUT, DELETE
P P P P
µService
2b
Route
Client 2
GET, POST, PUT, DELETE
P
P P
Plugins
Kong
Gateway
Consum
er
Upstream
P

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FLEXIBLE DEPLOYMENT OPTIONS – STANDALONE MODE
Kong 101 – Jumpstart into the world of APIs 12
¢ Kong Gateway Nodes deployed on VM, Bare
Metal or Dockerized
¢ Simple Deployment architecture
¢ Configuration using:
¢ RESTful Admin API
¢ decK
¢ Availability of Gateway Nodes is depending
on the database availability
Postgres-compatible
Database
Gateway
Node
Gateway
Node
Gateway Cluster

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FLEXIBLE DEPLOYMENT OPTIONS – HYBRID MODE
Kong 101 – Jumpstart into the world of APIs 13
¢ Data Plane (DP) Node only has connection to
Control Plane Node
¢ Control Plane (CP) Node Has connection to
Database and manages all DP Nodes
¢ Configuration: Depends on CP Deployment
¢ Benefits:
¢ Deployment flexibility
¢ Increased reliability
¢ Traffic reduction
¢ Increased security
¢ Ease of management
Postgres-compatible
Database
Data Plane
Node
Data Plane
Node
Gateway Cluster
Control Plane
Node
Data Pane
Node
On-Premises Cloud Provider 1

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FLEXIBLE DEPLOYMENT OPTIONS – KUBERNETES (K8S)
Kong 101 – Jumpstart into the world of APIs 14
¢ Kong K8s Ingress Controller translates K8s
resources into Kong Gateway configuration
¢ Deployment
¢ With or without database
¢ Possibility to run in hybrid mode
¢ Configuration using K8s CRDs
¢ Kubernetes can take care about:
¢ High availability
¢ Load Balancing
¢ Auto-scaling …
¢ Attention: there are restrictions, when deployed
without database
Kong Ingress
Controller Kong Proxy

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Kong 101 – Jumpstart into the world of APIs 15
LABS
https://opitzcloud.canto.global/b/GRBHD

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KONG IS KING
Kong 101 – Jumpstart into the world of APIs 16
¢ Getting started with API Management using
Kong is easy!
¢ Ease-of-use with respect to implementation
and deployment
¢ Kong Gateway provides lightweight, flexible
architecture
¢ Kong Gateway is developed efficiency in
mind:
¢ Efficient API delivery though automation with
CI/CD
¢ Efficient provisioning using IaC (Ansible,
Terraform)

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Kong 101 – Jumpstart into the world of APIs 17
Q & A

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IN CASE OF ANY QUESTIONS…
Kong 101 – Jumpstart into the world of APIs 18
Sven Bernhardt
Chief Architect / Integration Evangelist |
Oracle ACE Director
OPITZ CONSULTING Deutschland GmbH
Kirchstrasse 6, 51647 Gummersbach, Germany
Phone: +49 172 2193529
Mail: sven.bernhardt@opitz-consulting.com
Twitter: @sbernhardt
Blog: https://svenbernhardt.wordpress.com

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LINKS & REFERENCES
Kong 101 – Jumpstart into the world of APIs 19
¢ Kong Blog: https://konghq.com/blog/why-kong-is-the-best-api-gateway
¢ Kong PluginHub: https://docs.konghq.com/hub/
¢ Kong Gateway Documentation: https://docs.konghq.com/gateway/latest/
¢ Tutorial CI/CD: https://konghq.com/blog/api-gateway-ci-cd-pipeline
¢ Kong deck Documentation: https://docs.konghq.com/deck/latest/
¢ Kong Documentation Plugin compatibility: https://docs.konghq.com/kubernetes-ingress-
controller/latest/references/plugin-compatibility/
¢ Kong Documentation Admin API: https://docs.konghq.com/gateway/latest/admin-api/#route-
object