why do i need API key

[#1]

I am publishing few API via apigee .

I handle security at my own application server level .

Now why do i need api consumer key .I need valid use cases for that .Please tell me .

[anilsr · Accepted solution]

Great Question,

For various reasons, find the list below.

• Developer Access
  • Securely grant access to different developers who will be building apps consuming your APIs.
  • Revoke access when you find particular app using your APIs went crazy and started misusing your APIs.
• API Resource Access
  • Let's say I want to provide access to path /x but not to path /y for a particular developer / developer app
  • Let's say I would like to provide GET access but not to POST / DELETE / PUT
• Tracking Usage
  • Analytics

If you are the single consumer of your APIs may be apikey doesn't matter. But, APIs are all about building EcoSystem and integrations. API keys matter when you would like to on board several stakeholders like app developers, partners, internal teams to consume your APIs just like Facebook & Uber.

I am sure you can do all above things in your server level, but you will end up spending few years building same and few more years maintaining same. Don't reinvent the wheel 🙂

[ceber]

Echoing Anil's answer I would simple add to think beyond immediate needs and consider what might need to be done in the future. It's a very low-impact feature to add if you are using an api management platform, and gives you flexibility to control access to your services based on a simple identifier. That control might be routing, filtering, throttling, etc. Hard to say what the future needs might be, but having some identifier for callers at end edge of your systems gives you a lot of flexibility.