What is the role of API proxies in API management?

API proxies play a crucial role in API management by mediating access to the underlying APIs and applying various policies that can enhance security, monitoring, and performance. By serving as an intermediary layer, API proxies can enforce rate limiting, authentication, and logging, ensuring that the backend services are protected from excessive traffic or unauthorized access. This ability to implement policies makes API proxies essential in managing APIs effectively, allowing organizations to control how their APIs are accessed and utilized.

Other functions, such as directly exposing APIs to end-users, defining API specifications, or handling the deployment process, fall outside the specific role of API proxies. While these are important aspects of API management, they do not capture the primary purpose of an API proxy, which is to act as a mediator that provides additional control and monitoring capabilities for API interactions.