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new f1465d781ad blog: add why-reinvent-api-gateways (#1861)
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commit f1465d781ad7203f22eca7d5a44223541bd36246
Author: Yilia Lin <[email protected]>
AuthorDate: Fri Feb 21 17:23:41 2025 +0800
blog: add why-reinvent-api-gateways (#1861)
* blog: add why-reinvent-api-gateways
* Update why-reinvent-api-gateways.md
* add desc
* Update canonical url
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+---
+title: "Why We Are Reinventing API Gateways: The Story Behind Apache APISIX"
+authors:
+ - name: Ming Wen
+ title: Author
+ url: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ming-wen-api7/
+ image_url: https://github.com/moonming.png
+ - name: Yilia Lin
+ title: Technical Writer
+ url: https://github.com/Yilialinn
+ image_url: https://github.com/Yilialinn.png
+keywords:
+ - API Gateway
+ - Cloud API Gateway
+ - Open Source API Gateway
+description: Discover the journey of Apache APISIX, from a small windowless
office to a global open-source success. Learn why we created APISIX, its rapid
growth, and how it addresses modern API gateway needs.
+tags: [Community]
+---
+
+<head>
+ <link rel="canonical"
href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-we-reinventing-api-gateways-story-behind-apache-apisix-ming-wen-h3yqc/";
/>
+</head>
+
+>Apache APISIX has quickly become a leading API gateway, with over 460
contributors and 15K+ GitHub stars. This article explores its journey from a
small project to a widely-used, open-source solution, addressing key challenges
in modern API management.
+
+<!--truncate-->
+
+In just over five years, Apache APISIX has grown from a new open-source
project to one of the most widely used API gateways in the world. Today, APISIX
is an Apache Software Foundation (ASF) Top-Level Project, with over 460
contributors, 15K+ GitHub stars, and 100+ plugins. It is deployed across
industries like telecommunications, automotive, financial services, and retail,
with some of the largest known users running APISIX on over 10,000 CPU cores.
+
+But how did this all start?
+
+To answer that, we need to go back to early 2019, when two engineers, working
in a small windowless office, started building an API gateway from scratch.
This article tells the story of why we created APISIX, and why we open-sourced
it and donated to the Apache Software Foundation.
+
+## The Beginning: From a Windowless Room to a Global Open-Source Project
+
+Back in 2019, existing API gateways had already been around for years.
However, as cloud-native technologies and microservices architectures gained
momentum, we saw a growing gap between the available API gateways and the new
requirements emerging in modern infrastructures.
+
+After months of research, we identified several critical pain points that
existing solutions like NGINX and Kong API Gateway failed to address:
+
+- **Configuration synchronization**: Needed real-time, incremental config
updates across distributed API gateways.
+- **Immediate configuration application**: Changes should take effect in
milliseconds, not minutes.
+- **High scalability**: Should handle 100K+ routes efficiently without
performance degradation.
+- **Hot reloading**: Plugin updates and configuration changes shouldn't
require process restarts.
+
+Determined to solve these problems, we spent several months designing and
developing an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). We made three key architectural
choices that still differentiate APISIX today:
+
+1. **Using etcd for configuration storage and synchronization**, ensuring
real-time updates across distributed nodes.
+
+2. **Adopting a prefix tree (Trie) for route matching**, enabling ultra-fast
lookups even with thousands of routes.
+
+3. **Leveraging Lua for plugin execution**, allowing hot-reloading of plugins
without restarting the gateway.
+
+By mid-2019, we open-sourced our work and released APISIX on GitHub.
+
+## Becoming an Apache Top-Level Project
+
+In October 2019, we decided to donate APISIX to the Apache Software Foundation
(ASF). By July 2020, just nine months later, APISIX graduated as an Apache
Top-Level Project—one of the fastest-growing open-source projects in ASF
history.
+
+Throughout this journey, we worked without external funding, no VC backing,
and no income for over a year. It was purely driven by our belief that the
world needed a modern, high-performance, and open API gateway.
+
+## Why Did We Create APISIX?
+
+Many API gateways already existed—so why reinvent the wheel?
+
+We saw an opportunity to fundamentally improve API management by addressing
the following key technical gaps:
+
+
+
+If your API gateway requirements include:
+
+✅ Real-time, millisecond-level config synchronization
+
+✅ Handling thousands of routes without latency spikes
+
+✅ Ultra-low latency (under 5ms) for API processing
+
+✅ Hot plugin reloading without restarting the gateway
+
+Then Apache APISIX is your best choice.
+
+## Why Did We Donated APISIX to the Apache Software Foundation?
+
+Many open-source projects are controlled by a single vendor, which can lead to
licensing changes (as seen with Redis and ELK). Our goal wasn't just to build a
successful product at API7 but to ensure that APISIX remains a truly open
project for the global community.
+
+By donating APISIX to the Apache Software Foundation, we ensured:
+
+- **Vendor neutrality**: No single company controls APISIX.
+- **Long-term sustainability**: The project follows Apache governance,
protecting its open-source nature.
+- **Global adoption**: Apache projects are trusted by enterprises worldwide.
+
+This decision wasn't made lightly—building a successful commercial company
(API7.ai) while simultaneously donating its core technology was an
unconventional path. However, we believed this was the best way to maximize
APISIX's impact.
+
+## A New Path for Open Source and Business
+
+Most companies either:
+
+1. Start open-source projects as side projects while building their business
first.
+2. Keep key technologies closed-source to maintain a competitive edge.
+
+We did the opposite:
+
+- **2019**: Built APISIX from scratch.
+- **2019**: Open-sourced APISIX on GitHub.
+- **2019**: Donated it to Apache Software Foundation.
+- **2020**: APISIX became an Apache Top-Level Project.
+- **2021**: Expanded API7 from a two-person team into a company offering
enterprise solutions based on APISIX.
+
+This unique journey means that APISIX is engineer-led, community-driven, and
deeply committed to open-source principles—something rare in today's software
landscape.
+
+## Conclusion: Reinventing API Gateways with an Open Future
+
+Our mission with APISIX was never just about building a product—it was about
reshaping API management for the cloud-native era.
+
+With a thriving global community, rapid innovation, and enterprise adoption,
Apache APISIX is set to become the de facto API gateway for modern applications.
+
+Whether you're a startup, enterprise, or open-source enthusiast, if you're
looking for a high-performance, cloud-native API gateway, we invite you to
explore APISIX.
