Apigee Adapter for Envoy is an Apigee-managed API gateway that uses
Envoy to proxy API
traffic. Envoy is a popular, open source edge and service proxy designed for cloud-native
applications. You can run Apigee Adapter for Envoy on premises or in a multi-cloud environment.
With Apigee Adapter for Envoy, you get a relatively small footprint API gateway application
running close to your backend applications. Apigee Adapter for Envoy relies on Apigee for:
API authentication and authorization (with API keys and OAuth)
Quota management
API analytics
Watch videos:
This video offers an overview and demo of Google Cloud's Apigee Adapter for Envoy.
This video describes using the Apigee Adapter for Envoy with Service Mesh.
Installation options
You can use the Apigee Adapter for Envoy in the following context:
The following figure shows the high level architecture for Apigee Adapter for Envoy.
This architecture consists of management plane components deployed on Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
and data plane components running remotely on premises or in a cloud provider environment. The
data plane includes the Envoy proxy and Apigee Remote Service. The role of each component
is described following the figure.
A consumer or client app accesses an API endpoint exposed by the Envoy proxy.
The Envoy proxy passes the security context (using HTTP headers) to the Apigee
Remote Service. The Apigee Remote Service acts as a policy decision point (PDP) and advises Envoy to allow or
deny access to the API consumer for the request.
If the call is allowed, the Envoy proxy forwards the request to the backend.
The Apigee Remote Service asynchronously polls the management plane and downloads proxy, API product, and
other configuration that it needs to operate.
Why use Apigee Adapter for Envoy?
Moving the API management component close to backend target applications can reduce network
latency. While you can install Apigee hybrid in a private data center, a full deployment of
Apigee hybrid is necessarily large and complex to support its full feature-set and data-heavy
features like key management, monetization, and analytics. This means that deploying Apigee hybrid
on premises in each data-center is not always desirable.
Benefits of using Apigee Adapter for Envoy include:
Reduced latency of API traffic for services that run in close proximity.
Use of the full suite of Apigee Analytics metrics, dashboards, and APIs.
Keeps API traffic within the enterprise-approved boundaries for security or compliance
purposes.
Asynchronous communication with Apigee allows API traffic data to be captured and
sent to Apigee without affecting latency.
The adapter can tolerate temporary communication interruptions with the management
plane. Over time, however, an interruption can lead to loss of functionality. The adapter requires
communication with the management plane for:
Generating OAuth tokens
Verifying API keys (connection is required for the first verification, after which it is cached)
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-26 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eApigee Adapter for Envoy is an Apigee-managed API gateway that leverages the open-source Envoy proxy for managing API traffic in on-premises or multi-cloud environments.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eIt offers a smaller footprint than a full Apigee hybrid deployment, enabling its use closer to backend applications to reduce network latency.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe adapter uses Apigee for crucial tasks such as API authentication, authorization, and quota management, as well as offering access to the complete Apigee Analytics suite.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eIt operates with a management plane on Google Cloud and a data plane that includes the Envoy proxy and Apigee Remote Service for policy enforcement and configuration updates.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe adapter can be deployed as a service to the Istio service mesh integrated with Apigee hybrid.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],[],null,["# Apigee Adapter for Envoy overview\n\n*This page\napplies to **Apigee** and **Apigee hybrid**.*\n\n\n*View [Apigee Edge](https://docs.apigee.com/api-platform/get-started/what-apigee-edge) documentation.*\n\nWhat is Apigee Adapter for Envoy?\n---------------------------------\n\n\nApigee Adapter for Envoy is an Apigee-managed API gateway that uses\n[Envoy](https://www.envoyproxy.io/docs/envoy/latest/intro/what_is_envoy) to proxy API\ntraffic. Envoy is a popular, open source edge and service proxy designed for cloud-native\napplications. You can run Apigee Adapter for Envoy on premises or in a multi-cloud environment.\n\nWith Apigee Adapter for Envoy, you get a relatively small footprint API gateway application\nrunning close to your backend applications. Apigee Adapter for Envoy relies on Apigee for:\n\n- API authentication and authorization (with API keys and OAuth)\n- Quota management\n- API analytics\n\n\n**Watch videos:** \nThis video offers an overview and demo of Google Cloud's Apigee Adapter for Envoy. \nThis video describes using the Apigee Adapter for Envoy with Service Mesh.\n\nInstallation options\n--------------------\n\n\nYou can use the Apigee Adapter for Envoy in the following context:\n\n- As a service deployed to the Istio service mesh integrated with Apigee hybrid. See [Using Apigee Adapter for Envoy with Apigee hybrid](/apigee/docs/api-platform/envoy-adapter/v1.2.x/example-hybrid).\n\nApigee Adapter for Envoy\n------------------------\n\n\nThe following figure shows the high level architecture for Apigee Adapter for Envoy.\nThis architecture consists of management plane components deployed on Google Cloud Platform (GCP)\nand data plane components running remotely on premises or in a cloud provider environment. The\ndata plane includes the Envoy proxy and Apigee Remote Service. The role of each component\nis described following the figure.\n\n1. A consumer or client app accesses an API endpoint exposed by the Envoy proxy.\n2. The Envoy proxy passes the security context (using HTTP headers) to the Apigee Remote Service. The Apigee Remote Service acts as a policy decision point (PDP) and advises Envoy to allow or deny access to the API consumer for the request.\n3. If the call is allowed, the Envoy proxy forwards the request to the backend.\n4. The Apigee Remote Service asynchronously polls the management plane and downloads proxy, API product, and other configuration that it needs to operate.\n\nWhy use Apigee Adapter for Envoy?\n---------------------------------\n\nMoving the API management component close to backend target applications can reduce network\nlatency. While you can install Apigee hybrid in a private data center, a full deployment of\nApigee hybrid is necessarily large and complex to support its full feature-set and data-heavy\nfeatures like key management, monetization, and analytics. This means that deploying Apigee hybrid\non premises in each data-center is not always desirable.\n\nBenefits of using Apigee Adapter for Envoy include:\n\n- Reduced latency of API traffic for services that run in close proximity.\n\n- Use of the full suite of Apigee Analytics metrics, dashboards, and APIs.\n- Keeps API traffic within the enterprise-approved boundaries for security or compliance purposes.\n- Asynchronous communication with Apigee allows API traffic data to be captured and sent to Apigee without affecting latency.\n- The adapter can tolerate temporary communication interruptions with the management plane. Over time, however, an interruption can lead to loss of functionality. The adapter requires communication with the management plane for:\n - Generating OAuth tokens\n - Verifying API keys (connection is required for the first verification, after which it is cached)\n - Enforcing quotas\n - Sending analytics data to the management plane\n\nNext step\n---------\n\n[Install Apigee Adapter for Envoy](/apigee/docs/api-platform/envoy-adapter/v1.2.x/getting-started)"]]
