With Kong 1.0 users are now able to control TCP (Transport Control Protocol) traffic. Learn about how we added TCP support, and how you can try it out. TCP traffic powers email, file transfer, ssh, and many other common types of traffic that can’t be handled by a layer 7 proxy. Our expansion to layer 4 will enable you to connect even more of your services using Kong.

Part and parcel of modern enterprise development is building APIs that enable you to expose your services to developers both inside and outside your organization. But just building APIs isn’t enough. Getting APIs and API programs to market successfully hinges on convincing your developers to actually use them. And the key driver of getting developers to adopt and consume APIs, both within a company or among the wider developer community, is the developer portal.

APIs have come a long way from the arcane geek-speak of software interfaces popularized by Win32 APIs (still among the most commonly searched API phrases). Today, APIs represent interfaces between businesses and large swaths of internal enterprise services and business units. APIs not only connect software to software but also help to create entire commercial ecosystems, and so have become integral parts of how enterprises conduct business.

Good API design separates APIs that merely expose assets from those that help developers get things done. As I’ve written before, and as we’ll explore in this article, good design includes the style in which web API URLs are constructed.

In recent years, APIs have encouraged the emergence of new services by facilitating collaboration between applications and databases of one or more companies. Beyond catalyzing innovation, APIs have also revolutionized the customer-company relationship, allowing it to provide an accurate and detailed picture of the consumer at a time when a quality customer experience now counts as much as the price or capabilities of the product.