Presenting the new Boomi API Control Plane: Simplify API Management and improve your AI and API strategies

In July 2024, Boomi introduced the Boomi API Control Plane as part of the latest update to the Boomi Enterprise Platform. This release underscores Boomi commitment to providing comprehensive tools that empower organisations to manage and optimise their digital infrastructure, particularly through improvement on API management. 

APIs are essential for modern digital operations, but their rapid expansion, especially with unmanaged “shadow APIs,” often results in overwhelming “API sprawl.” Many organisations struggle with effectively discovering, managing, and securing their diverse API landscape.

It addresses this challenge by providing better visibility and control over your APIs. With this solution, you can consolidate all your APIs into a single view, streamline management across various gateways, and enforce consistent governance across your entire API ecosystem.

In this article we will discuss how Boomi API Control Plane can revolutionise your API management approach, highlighting its key features and the benefits it offers to help your organisation.

What is Boomi API Control Plane?

The Boomi API Control Plane offers a simple yet powerful way to manage all your APIs in one place. This platform makes it easy to discover, secure, and control your APIs, regardless of which vendor they come from. By unifying your API management, it simplifies the process and ensures consistent governance across your organisation. This means you can manage your APIs efficiently while maintaining a smooth user experience.

Boomi API Management already simplifies the configuration and exposure of real-time integrations. With the introduction of the Boomi API Control Plane, you can now ensure all your APIs, including hidden “shadow APIs,” are easily discoverable, manageable, and secure.

This platform introduces a unique federated approach to API management, offering a centralised view and ensuring consistent governance across your entire API. It also influences your existing API management investments, improving efficiency and control across your organisation.

Key features of Boomi API Control Plane

Here are the key features that make Boomi API Control Plane an essential component of your API strategy:

Centralised API Discovery

Locate all APIs within your organisation from a single central hub, manage shadow APIs effectively, and boost API adoption to fuel business innovation.

Streamlined API Management Across Gateways

Improve productivity with a unified developer experience, gain valuable insights into API performance and usage, and maximise the benefits of both on-premises and cloud investments.

Improve API Governance

Apply consistent policies across all platforms, minimise data breach risks, and simplify security audits for more efficient compliance.

Mediation

Create a layer of abstraction between published APIs and underlying integrations.

Lifecycle Management

Utilise the lifecycle wizard for efficient versioning and management of all integration and partner APIs.

Developer Portal

Use the API Developer Portal to showcase APIs for business processes, driving discovery and usage throughout your organisation.

Authentication

Implement APIs with robust security measures and third-party authentication to mitigate risks.

Establish a strong foundation for AI

AI relies on data accessed via APIs, by identifying, managing, and securing all your APIs, you enable AI agents and other AI applications to fully utilise your organisation’s data.

Improve developer experiences

Simplify the process of finding, understanding, and accessing APIs. Accelerate API adoption by removing unnecessary complexity and ensuring comprehensive documentation.

Why should you use Boomi API Control Plane? Key benefits explained

The Boomi API Control Plane offers a powerful solution to enhance your API management strategy. It provides a centralised platform that simplifies and optimises your API operations. Here are six key benefits of using Boomi API Control Plane:

• Discover and register all your API Gateways

The Boomi API Control Plane centralises the management of API gateways from eight different vendors (Apigee, AWS, Azure, Boomi, Broadcom, Gravitee, Kong, and WSO2) without requiring replacements. It provides visibility across all environments and allows you to leverage existing API investments.

• Audit your APIs

With the Boomi API Control Plane, you gain robust auditing capabilities. This allows you to track and review API usage, performance, and security events. Effective auditing helps ensure compliance, identify potential issues, and maintain high standards of API governance. It also provides insights into API interactions and helps in troubleshooting and optimising API performance.

• Manage unmanaged APIs

The platform offers tools to manage APIs that were previously unmanaged or outside your central API management framework. This includes identifying, cataloguing, and integrating these APIs into your controlled environment. By bringing unmanaged APIs under centralised control, you improve oversight, security, and consistency across your API ecosystem.

• Make APIs easier to use

Boomi API Control Plane simplifies the process of working with APIs by providing a user-friendly interface and standardising API interactions. It can automate various tasks, streamline API design, and provide documentation and support tools that make it easier for developers to understand and utilise APIs effectively. This can lead to faster development cycles and better developer experiences.

• Make better decisions and deliver ROI

The centralised insights and analytics provided by the Boomi API Control Plane enable better decision-making regarding API investments and strategies. By analysing API performance, usage metrics, and business impact, organisations can make informed decisions about which APIs to prioritise, optimise, or retire. This strategic approach helps maximise ROI from API initiatives and aligns them more closely with business goals.

• Solve the Problem of API Sprawl

It addresses API sprawl by providing a centralised, cloud-based dashboard that offers complete visibility and control over all API environments within your organisation. This platform simplifies API discovery, bringing shadow APIs under control and ensuring compliance with security policies. It also enhances API management across gateways, providing a consistent developer experience and maximising the value of both on-premises and cloud investments.

In addition to strengthening API governance by enforcing consistent security policies and simplifying compliance, the Boomi API Control Plane supports advanced initiatives like AI and event-driven architectures. The new developer portal further streamlines API productization, documentation, and branding, expanding accessibility for a wider developer community. This makes Boomi API Control Plane an essential tool for optimising your API management strategy and driving innovation.

Latest updates in Boomi API Control Plane

Let’s now discover the latest updates to Boomi API Control Plane, designed to improve your API management experience. These new features offer improved discovery, streamlined management, and stronger security. Let’s have a look at them:

• Version 1.1 of Open Proxy Specification. Now with support for multiple, environment specific, configurations and variable substitution.
• APIs with Open Proxy Specification can now be deployed to Layer 7 developer portal.
• Added copy-to-clipboard button for URL in API deployment tiles.
• Allow password reset for users that have been invited but did not activate their accounts, yet. This is helpful if an invitation email gets lost.
• Improved handling of a large number of entities. E.g. in the subscription dialogue, API products are now loaded continuously as the user scrolls through the list, instead of loading all at once.
• Multi-stage dialogues now have a wizard-like flow, including the ability to navigate to previous steps.
• More precise explanation of the cause when an API product cannot be subscribed.
• In the developer portal try-it-out view, disabled the try-it-out feature and added an explaining message when no servers are available due to the API not being deployed in any production environments.
• For Layer 7 developer portal agents, disabled or deprecated APIs are now excluded from API discovery. Added new flags to agent configuration to include them again.
• Added links to 3rd-party library licence lists in account settings.
• For on-premise deployments, added option to change ports in frontend containers.

Bug Fixes

• Added input validation for environment URL. This prevents issues where try-it-out views were missing servers, due to invalid environment URLs.
• Remove the “Unknown error” message if API discovery takes a long time.
• Fixed an issue in agent for Layer 7 developer portal, where unexpected application status would cause errors.

 

Conclusion

In conclusion, Boomi API Control Plane represents a significant advancement in API management, reflecting the company’s dedication to improving digital infrastructure. By centralising API discovery and management, Boomi offers a streamlined, efficient approach to controlling and securing your API. The new features and improvements empower organisations to better manage both their existing and shadow APIs, making them easier to use and more secure. This comprehensive solution not only simplifies operations but also delivers actionable insights that can drive better decisions and improve return on investment. Embracing the Boomi API Control Plane will help ºorganisations optimise their API strategies, ensuring they remain agile and competitive.

Thinking that’s an excellent solution for your organisation? Do not think twice and contact us today, we can help you! Combat API sprawl and boost digital transformation by ensuring your APIs are easily discoverable, effectively managed, and thoroughly secured.