API gateway overview

API gateways enable external network clients to access applications and services running in a Consul datacenter. This type of network traffic is commonly called north-south network traffic because it refers to the flow of data into and out of a specific environment. API gateways can also forward requests from clients to specific destinations based on path or request protocol.

API gateways solve the following primary use cases:

• Control access at the point of entry: Set the protocols of external connection requests and secure inbound connections with TLS certificates from trusted providers, such as Verisign and Let's Encrypt.
• Simplify traffic management: Load balance requests across services and route traffic to the appropriate service by matching one or more criteria, such as hostname, path, header presence or value, and HTTP method.

Consul supports API gateways for virtual machines and Kubernetes networks. Refer to the following documentation for next steps:

• API Gateways on VMs
• API Gateways for Kubernetes.