What is the role of API gateways in managing backend APIs?
API gateways play a crucial role in managing backend APIs by acting as an intermediary between clients and multiple backend services. They serve as a single entry point for all API requests and provide several important functions such as request routing, load balancing, authentication, and caching. Through API gateways, developers can enforce security measures, implement rate limiting, and handle cross-cutting concerns like request/response transformation. They also enable microservices architecture by aggregating data from multiple services into a unified API response. Overall, API gateways simplify backend API management, enhance scalability, and improve performance for client applications.