Microsoft Azure Architect Design (AZ-301) Practice Exam 2026 - Free Azure Architect Practice Questions and Study Guide

Azure API Management is an essential feature in Azure that provides comprehensive tools to manage the lifecycle of API services. This service enables organizations to create consistent and modern API gateways, allowing them to publish, secure, transform, maintain, and analyze their APIs in a scalable manner.

One of the key aspects of Azure API Management is its ability to establish a centralized control for APIs. It allows you to define who can access your APIs, implement usage policies, and monitor usage analytics, thereby managing the entire lifecycle effectively from development through to retirement. Furthermore, with features such as versioning and rate limiting, it plays a crucial role in evolving API capabilities without adversely affecting existing consumers.

In contrast, Azure Logic Apps focus on automating workflows between applications and services but do not specifically manage API lifecycles. Azure Functions provides a serverless compute service to run code in response to events but does not have built-in mechanisms for managing API lifecycles. Azure App Services allows hosting of web applications, mobile backends, and RESTful APIs, but it does not provide the API management features necessary to control the entire lifecycle of the APIs. Thus, Azure API Management distinctly fulfills the need for lifecycle management of API services.