Salesforce Launches Policy Development Kit to Help Developers Customize API Security Policies

With API cyberattacks spiking 137% in 2023, Anypoint Flex Gateway Policy Development Kit streamlines development of custom API security policies that power business applications, including those that use AI

Today, Salesforce announced the general availability of MuleSoft’s Anypoint Flex Gateway Policy Development Kit (PDK), which allows developers to streamline development of custom API security policies, generate faster delivery of API protection, and create flexible, effective security policies. 

Why it’s relevant: IT leaders report that 33% of their revenue now comes from API and API-related offerings, which can also decrease operational costs by 35%. APIs generate revenue through access fees, usage-based pricing, premium features, and ecosystem growth, among other strategies. However, as APIs increase both in volume and value, API cyberattacks are on the rise. According to 2023 reports cited in Hacker News, these attacks have jumped 137%. 

How it works: Anypoint Flex Gateway is a fast, lightweight, and distributed API gateway built to protect and secure any API, anywhere they’ve been deployed. By integrating with DevOps and CI/CD workflows, Anypoint Flex Gateway delivers the performance required for the most demanding applications while providing enterprise security and manageability across any environment. 

The gateway’s newest feature, Anypoint Flex Gateway PDK, allows developers to:

• Streamline development of custom policies by abstracting the technical complexities of the underlying SDK and providing tools to help developers create custom API security policies that support their unique business requirements. For example, a developer working in healthcare can easily configure custom API security measures, such as patient data access controls and encryption, tailored to specific compliance requirements.
• Generate faster delivery of API protection by automating several steps developers now handle manually, providing documentation as well as samples to speed up custom policy development, and supporting popular Integrated Development Environments (IDEs). The kit also offers a new capability to test policies locally during development. Developers can use the same tooling to apply both out-of-the-box policies and custom policies to manage APIs from a centralized control plane.
• Create flexible security policies and be AI-ready by helping developers extend the out-of-the-box security policies that come with Anypoint Flex Gateway to cover unique use cases. As AI initiatives demand more data protection, developers can quickly build policies to detect and protect sensitive data sent to AI LLM models using APIs.

Salesforce perspective: “The Anypoint Flex Gateway is an ultrafast API Gateway providing right API control to the most demanding applications. With Flex Gateway PDK, we extended functionality to allow developers and partners to create powerful custom policies to address their unique API security needs, offering both protection and control.” – Gerry Egan, VP, Product Management

With Flex Gateway PDK, we extended functionality to allow developers and partners to create powerful custom policies to address their unique API security needs, offering both protection and control.

Gerry Egan, VP, Product Management

Customer perspective: “The Anypoint Flex Gateway Policy Development Kit (PDK) makes the development of custom API policies much easier. We can use PDK to create flexible and powerful security policies and use those along with the out-of-box policies to address different use cases.” – Sharad Ballepu, Senior Director of API Management, Quest Diagnostics

Availability:

• MuleSoft’s Anypoint Flex Gateway Policy Development Kit is now generally available.

Learn more:

• Check out this demo of Anypoint Flex Gateway Policy Development Kit
• Learn more about MuleSoft Anypoint Flex Gateway
• Learn more about MuleSoft API Management on Anypoint Platform
• Watch the webinar: How to embrace and manage AI securely across your organization
• Read about Universal API Management on Anypoint Platform

Any unreleased services or features referenced here are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available.