What is API Sprawl?

API sprawl happens when an organization creates or uses too many APIs without properly managing them. This can occur when teams develop new APIs to meet quick demands or integrate third-party APIs without keeping track of them. As security teams add more APIs, they often fail to document or monitor them, leading to challenges in security, visibility, and management across the organization

In this blog, you will learn about the causes, impacts, and solutions for API sprawl, along with practical ways to identify and manage it effectively. It also highlights how Akto can streamline the organization's API ecosystem.

What is API Sprawl?

API sprawl refers to the uncontrolled growth of APIs within an organization, often resulting from the rapid development and deployment of multiple APIs without proper oversight or management. This phenomenon typically arises when security teams create APIs independently, leading to a fragmented and disorganized API landscape.

As a result, organizations may face challenges such as confusion over available APIs, duplicated efforts, security vulnerabilities, and difficulties in maintenance. Effectively addressing API sprawl involves implementing strategies to manage and consolidate APIs, ensuring clarity, security, and streamlined development processes.

Causes of API Sprawl

API sprawl emerges from several key factors contributing to the uncontrolled growth of APIs within organizations. Let's explore the main causes:

1. Rapid Growth in Microservices Architecture

Rapid growth in microservices architecture contributes significantly to API sprawl. Organizations break down big applications into smaller, independent services. Each service often needs its APIs, leading to many APIs across the organization. While good for scalability and flexibility, this approach results in many APIs needing revision to manage and secure.

2. Lack of Centralized Governance

Another major cause of API sprawl is the need for centralized governance. Different teams may create and deploy APIs independently without a central authority to oversee API development and management. This can result in inconsistent API design, security standards, and documentation. Centralized governance ensures all APIs follow the same standards and practices, reducing the risk of sprawl.

3. Lack of Collaboration

Independent team development often leads to API sprawl. When teams work in isolation, they may create APIs that do the same thing without knowing about each other’s work. This duplication results in redundant APIs and increases complexity. Encouraging collaboration and communication between teams can help prevent this issue and promote the reuse of existing APIs.

4. Inadequate Documentation Practices

Inadequate documentation practices worsen API sprawl. When APIs need clear and consistent Documentation, it becomes easier for developers to understand and use them effectively. Poor Documentation can lead to creating new APIs instead of using existing ones, adding to the sprawl. Implementing strong documentation standards ensures all APIs are well-documented, making them easier to manage and use.

Impact of API Sprawl on Organizations

API sprawl can significantly disrupt an organization’s operations, increasing risks and reducing efficiency. As organizations rely more on APIs, managing them becomes critical to avoid the negative effects of unchecked API growth. Here’s a deeper look at the impact of API sprawl:

Higher Security Risks

Every API adds a potential entry point for attackers. As the API inventory expands, the attack surface grows, making it increasingly difficult to secure each one effectively. Poorly managed or outdated APIs are particularly vulnerable, offering easy targets for attackers. Without proper security measures, these APIs can lead to serious breaches that compromise sensitive data and systems. Actively managing and securing the APIs is essential to reducing these risks.

Reduced Visibility

When security teams spread APIs across various areas, tracking their usage becomes challenging. Without centralized oversight, it becomes difficult to monitor which APIs are active, leading to gaps in security management.

This lack of visibility increases the chances of missing critical issues like outdated versions or hidden vulnerabilities. As a result, addressing security risks or maintaining API health becomes a much more complex task, making the organization more vulnerable to potential threats.

Increased Cost and Complexity

Managing a sprawling API ecosystem requires significantly more resources. Developers and security teams are forced to spend extra time troubleshooting issues, updating APIs, and ensuring compatibility between them. As the API environment becomes more complex, development slows down, and operational inefficiencies rise, driving up costs. Additionally, poor coordination across teams can lead to duplicate work and cause teams to miss security updates, further increasing the burden.

Slower Response to Issues

As the number of APIs grows, troubleshooting becomes more complex and time-consuming. Teams often face challenges pinpointing the specific API responsible for an issue, leading to delays in identifying the root cause. This slower response time can result in prolonged service disruptions and increased downtime. In large ecosystems, without centralized monitoring, issues can remain unnoticed, further complicating the resolution process.

Difficulty in Compliance Management

Regulations like GDPR and HIPAA demand strict control over data access, storage, and usage, which becomes increasingly difficult as the number of APIs grows. Poorly documented or unmonitored APIs make it harder to ensure that organizations handle data in accordance with these regulations.

This lack of oversight increases the risk of non-compliance, exposing the organization to potential legal penalties and financial losses. Additionally, tracking sensitive data across numerous APIs can lead to errors, further complicating compliance efforts.

How Akto Helps Manage API Sprawl

Akto tackles API sprawl head-on with its comprehensive suite of tools and features designed to streamline API management and enhance security. Here's how Akto helps organizations regain control over their API ecosystem.

API Discovery

Akto continuously discovers and catalogs all APIs in the organization’s system, including internal, public, and third-party APIs. This real-time discovery ensures that no API goes unnoticed, providing full visibility into the API ecosystem.

By automatically identifying every API, Akto helps organizations stay on top of potential security risks and compliance requirements. Organizations can track changes, monitor activity, and ensure that all APIs are properly managed and secured.

Security Testing

Akto actively tests the APIs for security vulnerabilities, running thorough checks across each API endpoint. It automatically scans for common issues like Broken Object Level Authorization (BOLA), security misconfigurations, and exposure of sensitive data.

As soon as Akto identifies a vulnerability, it alerts security teams in real-time, allowing them to act quickly before any threat can escalate. This proactive testing ensures that every API in the organization system stays secure and compliant with industry standards.

Comprehensive Documentation

Akto automatically generates and maintains up-to-date documentation for all the APIs, ensuring that every API is documented with its endpoints, parameters, and security settings. This makes it easier for your security and development teams to understand, manage, and use each API without the burden of manual documentation.

Centralized Management

Akto provides a single platform where organizations can manage, monitor, and secure all the APIs in one place. By centralizing API management, Akto eliminates the complexity of juggling multiple tools and helps to track usage, detect security vulnerabilities, and maintain performance more efficiently. This streamlined approach reduces redundancy and gives the security team full visibility into the API ecosystem, enhancing productivity and reducing the risk of errors or security gaps.

Best Practices to Prevent API Sprawl

Organizations can effectively combat API sprawl by implementing these best practices, ensuring a streamlined and secure API ecosystem.

Implement Strong API Governance

Establish clear guidelines for API development and usage across the organization. Define roles and responsibilities for creating, managing, and deprecating APIs. Regularly audit APIs to ensure they meet security and performance standards. By enforcing these rules, organizations prevent teams from building unnecessary APIs. This keeps the API ecosystem lean and manageable.

Automate API Discovery

Use automated tools to continuously discover and catalog all APIs in the organization’s system. This ensures security teams don’t miss any API, whether internal or external. Automation reduces the risk of shadow APIs going unnoticed and helps maintain visibility. By keeping track of all APIs, organizations avoid duplication and improve overall security. This approach helps control API sprawl and makes management easier.

Monitor API Usage

Track the usage of each API in real time to understand its importance and performance. By identifying which APIs are underused or outdated, security engineers can prioritize which ones to deprecate. Regular monitoring helps them prevent the buildup of unnecessary APIs. It also ensures that every API is delivering value and functioning as expected. This proactive approach keeps the API inventory optimized.

Adopt OpenAPI Specification

Use the OpenAPI Specification to describe the web APIs clearly and consistently. By adopting this industry-standard format, security engineers streamline API development and management across their organization. OpenAPI helps ensure that the APIs are well-documented, making them easier to understand and use. It also promotes better collaboration between teams by providing a common framework for API design.

Enforce API Lifecycle Management

Establish a defined API lifecycle from creation to retirement. Ensure that security teams follow a structured process for API versioning, updating, and deprecating. Regularly review APIs to determine if they are still needed or if they can be retired. This prevents outdated APIs from lingering and contributing to sprawl. Enforcing lifecycle management keeps the organization’s API landscape organized and efficient.

Centralized API Management

Adopt a centralized platform to manage all the APIs in one place. This ensures that all teams follow the same standards and best practices for API usage. A centralized system provides a single source of truth for API documentation, security, and performance monitoring. By centralizing management, organizations reduce redundancy and improve control. This helps prevent API sprawl and enhances overall visibility.

Final Thoughts

API sprawl presents significant challenges, but organizations can mitigate its impact by understanding its causes and applying effective management strategies. By focusing on thorough documentation, centralizing API governance, and enforcing strong security practices, organizations can maintain a streamlined and secure API ecosystem.

Akto strengthens API security with its powerful platform. Akto automates security testing, provides real-time monitoring, and runs automated checks to help organizations swiftly identify and mitigate risks. To learn how Akto can protect the APIs and enhance the organization's security, book a demo today.