Benefits and Drawbacks of Separating API Servers

Tadashi Shigeoka ·  Sat, February 6, 2021

I’ll introduce the benefits and drawbacks of separating API servers.

Background

I’m developing a web service that hosts two types of web services (SPAs): one for general users (toC) and one for admin panel (toE), each with separate domains.

The APIs called by these SPAs use the same source code, but I received advice on the benefits and drawbacks of whether to host them on separate domains or use them commonly, which I’ll share.

Benefits of Separating API Servers

  • If one service experiences high traffic and the API server becomes overloaded, the other service remains unaffected
  • Easier to separate logs
  • Easier to determine which service is causing issues when failures occur

Drawbacks of Separating API Servers

  • Potentially higher cost

That’s all from wanting to understand the benefits and drawbacks of separating API servers from the Gemba.