WSO2 API Manager 1.0.0 Goes GA

Last Friday we released WSO2 API Manager 1.0. It is the result of months of hard work. We started brainstorming about a WSO2 branded API management solution back in mid 2011. Few months later, in October, I implemented API support for Apache Synapse, which was a huge step in improving the REST support in our integration platform (specially in WSO2 ESB). This addition also brought us several steps closer to implementing a fully fledged API management solution based on WSO2 Carbon and related components. Then somewhere around February 2012, a team of WSO2 engineers officially started working on the WSO2 API Manager product. Idea was simple - combine our existing components to offer a smooth and end-to-end API management experience while addressing a number of challenges such as API provisioning, API governance, API security and API monitoring. The idea of combining our mediation, governance, identity and activity monitoring components to build the ultimate API management solution was a fascinating one to think about even for us.

I officially joined the WSO2 API Manager team in late April. It's been 15 hectic weeks since then but at the same time it's been 15 enjoyable weeks. Nothing is more fulfilling than seeing a project evolving from a set of isolated components into a feature complete product with its own UIs, samples and documentation. The development team was also one of the best a guy could ask for with each member delivering his/her part to the fullest, consistently going beyond expectations. 

This release of WSO2 API Manager supports creating APIs, versioning them and then publishing them into an 'API Store' after a review process. API documentation, technical metadata and ownership information can also be collected and tracked through the solution. The built-in API Store allows API consumers to browse the published APIs, provide feedback on them, and ultimately obtain API keys required to access them. API security is based on OAuth bearer token profile and OAuth resource owner grant types are supported to allow end-user authentication for the APIs. The API gateway (runtime) publishes events and statistics to a remote BAM server which then runs a series of analyzers  to extract useful usage information and display them on a dashboard. 

We are currently working with a group of customers and independent analysts to evaluate the product and further improve it. Objective is to go into 'release early - release often' mode and do a series of patch releases, thereby driving the product into maturity quickly. You can also join the effort by downloading the product, trying out a few scenarios and giving us some feedback on our mailing lists. You can report any issues or feature requests on our JIRA. Please refer the on-line documentation if you need any clarifications on any features. Have fun!