Cloud Gateway — federated cross-cloud API platform

A major Dutch grocery retailer. Client abstracted; metrics as delivered.

Context

The organisation had grown 20+ API gateways across teams, with an ageing IBM API Connect at the centre and no unified security or governance model. Every team solved authentication, onboarding and observability differently. Adding a new API meant days of coordination.

What I built

A federated, cross-cloud, self-service API platform spanning AWS API Gateway and Azure APIM, driven by Terraform modules:

• A unified OAuth2/JWT security model (Okta/Auth0) replacing per-team auth.
• Automated, infrastructure-as-code onboarding so teams self-serve a new API.
• Centralised observability (Datadog) across all traffic.
• Internal React/Node.js tooling for developer experience.

It replaced IBM API Connect and consolidated the 20+ gateways behind one model.

Impact

• ~500M+ API requests per month federated across the platform.
• 18–20 product teams served on one self-service model.
• ~€250–300k per year in cost savings.
• Onboarding lead time cut from days to minutes.

Role & stack

Led the design and rollout — API standards, the security model, and governance.

Stack: AWS (API Gateway, IAM, VPC), Azure (APIM, Entra ID), Terraform, Node.js, React, OAuth2/OIDC (Okta/Auth0), Datadog.

→ See also APIs & gateways and Integration architecture.