SoaScape is developed to facilitate the governance of APIs and other application-to-application (A2A) interconnections (including queuing, topics, file-sharing, and more) and to simplify API management. The product enables you to:
Maintain an accurate registry of APIs and other A2A interconnections with minimal cost and operational footprint. You don’t need to go through surveys or inventories to know how your applications connect.
Most A2A interactions occur via APIs; where feasible, SoaScape automatically retrieves API connection details from gateways, reducing the need for manual updates.To have clear, comprehensive visibility into how your applications connect and interact.
SoaScape features intuitive user interfaces that support flexible navigation, allowing you to explore specific interconnections or to zoom out to explore selected subset of applications.Synchronize your enterprise architecture models (ArchiMate) with operational data related to A2A interconnections.
This capability helps uncover the structural characteristics of your enterprise application landscape directly from the runtime environment, ensuring your architecture models are being kept up to date.Enhance API observability (non-real-time) – a side benefit of processing API policy information and/or log files from your gateways.
This additional capability enables you to verify consistency and correctness of API-configurations and also to identify potential security flaws.
It is assumed that the organization recognizes both the necessity and the advantages of centrally registering APIs and other application-to-application (A2A) interconnections. The success of SoaScape hinges on this understanding, as well as on the proper assignment of responsibility for maintaining the registry of interconnections. As with any comparable solution, the management of application interconnections must be embedded within the organization’s IT policies and procedures.
In Gartner’s terminology, SoaScape falls into the category of API Management products. However it needs to be stressed that SoaScape does not compete with API gateway solutions but complements them. It focuses on providing accurate, detailed views of how applications connect and does not include mechanisms for controlling the operational environment. Organizations using SoaScape are expected to continue relying on their API gateways and to follow the guidance of the respective vendors .
Why Registering Application Interconnections Matters?
Modern business processes depend not only on the functioning of individual applications but also on the connections between them. Organizations therefore need to view their applications as an integrated whole and manage the interconnections accordingly. Without this, it becomes difficult to address issues arising from application dependencies, including continuity and security risks. These challenges become clear when considering questions such as:
- How many API connections exist, and can their performance, reliability, and security be audited?
- What are the consequences of an application failure for the rest of the landscape, and which business processes would be affected? What are the dependency chains?
- How dependent is the organization on APIs provided by others, and which of its own APIs are exposed externally?
- Is the use of APIs by mobile devices visible in architecture views, and is it adequately managed?
- Which mechanisms and products are used to secure APIs and control access across different hosting environments?
- Is there a gap between the real, “as‑is” application landscape and the models maintained by enterprise architects? Is the organization dealing with “spaghetti APIs” without realizing it?
Unless an organization is prepared to conduct a lengthy inventory, it needs a tool that can provide these answers directly. In other words, it needs accurate insight into the interconnections of the actual application landscape. SoaScape was developed for this purpose: information about applications, interfaces, services, and their interconnections is always available.
Who would benefit?
The primary users of SoaScape are teams responsible for managing APIs and application-to-application connections. Additional beneficiaries include:
- IT operations staff. SoaScape helps quickly identify API dependency chains, locate owners of APIs, queues, topics, and review relevant policies.
- Software architects and developers. As an API registry, SoaScape serves as a convenient starting point for navigating to other sources and documentation.
- Owners of application components and services. SoaScape provides an accurate view of how the applications they manage are connected.
- Enterprise architects and CIOs. They gain access to a continuously updated “as-is” view of the entire application landscape and its interconnections.
Product Features
The currently supported features include (but are not limited to):
- A structured registration of application-components, application services, API endpoints and all application-interconnections, including not only APIs (webservices), but also: queues, topics, shared files, shared databases and others.
- Visualizations of application landscapes (or selected subsets of it) with a variety of tabular and tree representations and 3D diagrams.
- Version registration for webservices (APIs) and application-components;
- Extensible property lists for application-components.
- Support for multiple (separated) runtime environments (for example: development – test – acceptance – production).
- Online (static) reports including 3D visualizations.
- Data exchange in Excel and ArchiMate exchange format.
- Automated detection and processing of API-Gateway configuration changes, including the processing of whitelists (IP-addresses, ranges and client certificates). Currently, this feature is available only for Layer 7 API Gateways.
Planned Improvements
- Script-based merge with ArchiMate models.
- Desktop-software distribution from the Cloud.
Envisaged (and prototyped) Features
- Automated discovery of API interconnections from log files.
- Dependency path visualizations through 3D animations.
- Automated processing of configuration changes for other types of API Gateways (other than Layer 7 API Gateway).
Availability
The product is fully operational and available for download on this site.
Do not forget to also download the “tutorial” databases from the same page. For any questions or inquiries, please mail to info@soascape.com.
The use of SoaScape is and will remain free; the software is provided “as is”. The process of organizing the product support and making the software available as Open Source is ongoing.