Kong

Kong is a high-performance, scalable gateway built on Nginx that sits in front of your APIs and microservices to handle routing, authentication, rate limiting, and traffic control. Written in Lua, it provides a plugin-based architecture that lets you extend functionality without modifying core code.

As cloud-native applications grow more complex, Kong addresses critical challenges like securing API endpoints, managing traffic between hundreds of microservices, and now routing AI/LLM requests efficiently. It works seamlessly with Kubernetes as an Ingress controller, making it ideal for containerized environments and DevOps workflows.

What sets Kong apart is its dual focus on traditional API management and modern AI gateway capabilities. You can proxy requests to OpenAI, manage LLM operations, and apply consistent policies across both REST APIs and AI services. The extensive plugin ecosystem covers everything from OAuth2 and JWT authentication to Prometheus monitoring and custom transformations.

Whether you're running on-premises, in the cloud, or across hybrid environments, Kong delivers enterprise-grade reliability with declarative configuration, real-time analytics, and the flexibility to handle millions of requests per second while maintaining low latency.