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Blog

The latest posts and insights about Ambassador Labs - our products, our ecosystem, as well as voices from across our community.

Edge Stack API Gateway

Why Edge Stack uses CRDs instead of the Kubernetes Ingress Resource

I’m Cindy Mullins, the Community Manager here at Ambassador. Our Community Corner segments on LinkedIn feature a weekly deep dive into common questions we get in our Community across all of our products: Edge Stack API Gateway, Telepresence, and Blackbird API Development. In this session, I wanted to explore how Edge Stack API Gateway resources are defined in Kubernetes and why we take the approach of using custom resource definitions (or CRDs) rather than rely, as some API Gateways do, on the Kubernetes Ingress Resource.

September 3, 2024 | 8 min read
api gateway microservices

API Development

Simplifying Mocking APIs for Faster Development: Basic & Advanced Techniques

Let's say you're a backend developer for a large fintech company. You've been tasked with building the main set of APIs that'll power this company, and you're only 40% into it. Plus, you've got to launch in just a few days. At this point, you not only have to finish building this API but integrate and test it. With your limited time, that's nearly impossible. The only way to resolve this issue in the nick of time is by using a mocking API so you and your team can work quickly and in parallel. Mocking APIs allows you to create a simulated version of an actual web service; in this article, you'll understand how it works, the steps to set up an API mock and some best practices for Mocking APIs.

 Prince is a technical writer and DevOps engineer who believes in the power of showing up. He is passionate about helping others learn and grow through writing and coding.
August 28, 2024 | 13 min read
api gateway microservices

Edge Stack API Gateway

How APIs Power Microservices Architectures 101 Guide

Imagine you're developing a food ordering application for your favorite restaurant. Like any other food ordering app, it would have functionalities for placing orders, paying for them, delivering them, etc. Since these are all separate functionalities, you might consider using a microservice architecture for this application. That way, each functionality (service) can be tested, deployed, and scaled independently. You might be wondering how they'd communicate with each other. Well, that's simple - APIs. For example, when the ordering service needs to confirm item details, it sends an API request to the menu service. Similarly, when it's time to process a payment, it sends an API request to the payment service.

 Prince is a technical writer and DevOps engineer who believes in the power of showing up. He is passionate about helping others learn and grow through writing and coding.
August 27, 2024 | 15 min read
Accelerating API Design with ADDR & Blackbird

API Development

Accelerating API Design with ADDR and Blackbird

I’ve been writing and teaching about the Align-Define-Design-Refine (ADDR) API design first process for many years. Along the way, I have made updates and improvements to the process. One thing that was lacking was a tool to complement the work of teams using ADDR. I’ve recently begun to explore a new product from Ambassador called Blackbird, which promises to accelerate the API lifecycle. In this article, I’ll provide a brief review of the ADDR process, then use the artifacts from ADDR to help me design and mock the API. I’ll capture some tips and call out a few wishlist items that I hope Blackbird will incorporate into future releases. Understanding the ADDR Process

August 26, 2024 | 7 min read
QA Evolution

API Development

QA is Dead. Long Live QA: The Evolving Role of Quality Assurance in Modern Software Development

Where Have All the Testing & QA Folks Gone? If you do a quick Google search, it becomes apparent that the death of Quality Assurance (QA) has come and gone. As someone who has worked in companies with no dedicated QA team for several years now, I’d say the mainstream is finally catching up to this trend. The notion that the role of Quality Assurance (QA) is dead can be attributed to several recent trends and changes in the software development industry in recent years, including: Shift-Left Testing: The greater adoption of agile methodologies and DevOps has led to a shift-left approach in testing, where testing activities are performed earlier in the development process. This approach integrates testing into the development process, meaning that developers are now more involved in testing throughout the entire lifecycle.

August 22, 2024 | 10 min read