The impact of Tyk on PA DIGITAL’s API Management
Tyk Hybrid, deployed on AWS, was integrated within PA’s new Bee Digital product and immediately improved their application’s authorisation to APIs and rate limiting, ensuring that end-users receive a seamless and secure service.
After successfully using Tyk to manage their internal APIs. PA quickly found other ways that Tyk could add value to their ambitious plans, and are now also using Tyk to expose web services that can be consumed by third parties.
These third parties might be their partner’s APIs, or some of their cloud applications, such as SalesForce. A typical workflow for these external users begins when the user logs into the application and receives a JWT generated by PA. That JWT is then added to all request APIs as the user begins to use the application.
PA especially like Tyk’s ability to perform rate-limiting and support of JWT & Auth Tokens. Since moving to production, PA have also benefitted from features like Tyk’s request transformation/responses and CORS support.
Who are PA DIGITAL?
PA DIGITAL (PA) have brought the world-renowned Yellow Pages service to a range of businesses across Spain for over 50 years. With an SME’s digital visibility vital to their success, PA’s dedicated digital arm, BeeDigital, helps boost a company’s online presence and strengthen their visibility through online listings and its smartphone App.
PA has embarked on a huge digital transformation, and one central component is a shift in how end-users work with PA and the services it promotes. In the past, the service worked primarily as content publication, with limited understanding of how successful ongoing connections were.
PA’s newest innovation focuses on turning PA into a platform for PA users, businesses and customers to interact with one another directly. They currently have over 20 APIs available.
What API challenges did PA DIGITAL face?
This new feature, central to PA’s improved digital service, comes in the form of the BeeDigital website, and also via a Hybrid Mobile App.
Given that most of the application’s user interface is built as a Single Page Application in javascript, PA needed extra effort to secure the server side web services that are consumed in that UI.
They also needed a more streamlined way to manage the multiple APIs that this project was exposing, and one that helped solve their authorisation and rate-limiting challenges.
Why did PA DIGITAL turn to Tyk?
An initial investigation into the API Gateway and Management marketplace quickly led PA to Tyk, thanks to some stand-out features: clear pricing, ease of installation and a variety of deployment options.
After further in-depth discussions on their requirements with the help of a Tyk Consulting Engineer, PA decided on a Tyk Hybrid Pro deployment, which allows them to deploy clusters of Tyk gateways close to their local traffic. PA are currently using a number of AWS data-centres
in Europe.
PA especially like Tyk’s ability to perform rate-limiting and support of JWT & Auth Tokens. Since moving to production, PA have also benefitted from features like Tyk’s request transformation/responses and
CORS support.
How do PA DIGITAL use Tyk day to day?
PA now manage their 20+ different APIs using a single Tyk installation, and from there they configure different APIs for each of their environments. Each API is also duplicated within each of their four environments.
PA have created different APIs within their production environments to mirror each ‘real’ external-facing API and use Jenkins with their unit tests pointing to the each of the proper environments. Currently these are a mix of internal and public-facing APIs.
Given that the set-up is critical to PA’s core product and service, PA could also make the most of Tyk’s super-fast helpdesk support, kicking in from the day that they purchased Tyk Hybrid Pro.
