Introduction
This section provides an overview of the Platform, a solution for governing digital products throughout their lifecycle. It details its purpose, benefits, and key functionalities.
What is the Platform?
The Platform is a comprehensive governance platform for digital products. It lets organizations design, organize and govern APIs, AI agents and MCP servers through a unified operational model for lifecycle, access and reuse, the foundation for scalable AI.
In the Platform, digital products is the umbrella term for everything an organization offers to its consumers: REST APIs, MCP servers, AI agents and any custom product type an organization chooses to define. All digital products share the same catalog, the same visibility and subscription rules and the same governance model, while each type keeps its own specific information.
Unlike traditional API management platforms, which focus on a single type of product, the Platform focuses on:
Ensuring compliance with governance policies
Providing visibility and control over the entire ecosystem of digital products
Facilitating collaboration between developers, architects, and business stakeholders
Integrating seamlessly with external gateways and CI/CD pipelines
Automating lifecycle processes from design to retirement, for the organizations that need them
By leveraging the Platform, organizations can establish a unified and structured approach to the governance of their digital products, avoiding fragmentation and ensuring reusability.
Some capabilities described in this documentation, such as digital products other than REST APIs (for example MCP servers and AI agents), assets, the Public showcase, connectors and AI assistants, are available only if they have been enabled for your installation. What each user can see and do also depends on their role and user type, which administrators can configure at any time.
Objectives and benefits of the platform
The primary goal of the Platform is to simplify governance while accelerating the adoption of digital products across organizations. Key benefits include:
Streamlined management of digital products
Provides full visibility into digital products and assets, whatever their type
Supports versioning, approval, and deprecation workflows, which each organization can adopt as needed
Supports centralized documentation and compliance tracking
Centralized catalog of digital products and applications
Brings REST APIs, MCP servers, AI agents and other digital products together in a single Active Catalog, alongside the App Catalog for applications
Enables metadata-driven discovery and classification, with filters by product type
Enhances discoverability and governance at scale
Security & compliance-driven governance
Ensures access control policies and compliance rules are enforced
Supports role-based permissions and auditing
Enables secure productization and external exposure
Keeps track of the IP addresses authorized to call each subscription, through the Network section
Integration & automation
Provides connectors for external API gateways (see the Standard connectors and Custom connectors sections)
Integrates with CI/CD pipelines
Supports event-driven automation of lifecycle processes
Key features overview
The Platform includes several core capabilities that enable effective governance:
Features | Description |
|---|---|
Active Catalog | Single catalog where consumers discover every digital product they are allowed to see (REST APIs, MCP servers, AI agents and other types), with filters by type, saved filters and card or table views |
Digital products | REST APIs and other product types, such as MCP servers and AI agents, each described by a template that administrators can define and version. Product types other than REST APIs are available if enabled for your installation |
App Catalog | Centralized repository of applications with metadata, ownership, and consumed and produced products |
Lifecycle management | Support for design, productization, publishing, versioning, and retirement, which each organization can adopt to the extent it needs |
API designer | Dedicated workspace to create, edit, validate, test, and manage OpenAPI specifications of REST APIs through both code and form-based editing modes. An AI assistant is available if enabled for your installation |
Role-Based Access Control | Configurable user roles and permissions for governance enforcement |
Subscription & Consumption | Managed approval workflows for consumers and subscription models |
Network | Register of the IP addresses and lists authorized to call subscribed products, with approval of each requested IP address |
Notification System | Real-time event-driven alerts for lifecycle, subscription and network events |
Integration with External Gateways | Connectors for external API management platforms, available if enabled for your installation |
Public showcase | Branded, client-specific public page for showcasing products, product value, and onboarding new users, available if enabled for your installation |
AI assistants | Assistants that help users discover digital products and design APIs, available if enabled for your installation |
How the Platform supports governance
Effective governance is critical for ensuring the consistency, security, and reusability of digital products. The Platform enhances governance by providing:
Configurable governance policies
Enforces compliance rules for the digital products that need them
Standardizes creation, versioning, and deprecation processes
Provides dashboards for real-time monitoring
Structured productization
Distinguishes between digital products (what consumers see and subscribe to) and assets (the backend implementations behind them), where assets are enabled for your installation
Describes each product type through templates, so that every product of the same type carries the same information
Ensures consistent consumption experiences across teams
Role-based visibility & control
Manages access to each digital product at organization, group, and user levels
Supports multi-tenant governance models
Provides self-service discovery while maintaining governance control
Metrics & KPI tracking
Offers real-time insights into adoption and performance
Tracks usage trends and governance compliance
Enables data-driven decision-making for improving the ecosystem