Chris Phillips’ Blog - API, Integration and Governance

Terraform is an excellent tool for managing infrastructure. I use it, I recommend it, and I’ve seen it work brilliantly in production environments. However, I’ve also seen teams try to force it into application deployment scenarios where it simply doesn’t belong. This article explains why Terraform should stay in its lane - infrastructure - and why your APIs deserve better.

It’s that time of year again when we all search for the perfect gifts for our loved ones. I’ve always believed in giving something creative and personal—whether it’s handmade by my kids or commissioned from talented friends and artists.

This year, I decided to commission a custom family portrait from Carlos Valarezo, a talented illustrator based in Ecuador. I provided him with a detailed brief and a collection of family photos, and he transformed them into the stunning artwork you see above.

Recently I have been working with IBM AppConnect Designer in Software and the connectors for LDAP and Active Directory.

There are three connectors that need to be considered here

• Microsoft Entra ID
• Microsoft Active Directory
• LDAP Request node

Client credentials in IBM API Connect (APIC) are used for authentication and authorization for applications which need to access protected APIs. There are two main types of client credentials: Client ID: A unique identifier for the client application or service. Client Secret: A secret key known only to the client and the API Connect gateway.

It is used to ensure that only authorized clients can access protected APIs and resources.

The client credentials created within IBM APIC does not have any expiry time but recently we are seeing many customers looking for these client credentials to get expired in certain number of days specified with a new one in place from security perspective.

There is no out of box feature as of now in IBM APIC for this but it can be achieved using platform Rest APIs provided by APIC. You can automate the client credentials rotation using the Rest APIs available.

Note: When you have rotated client id and secrets you must ensure your application calling the apis also has the credentials updated

One of my customers was writing a script to detect when the last message was got from an MQ QUEUE.

When running an APIConnect Gateway outside of Kubernetes it is often required to replace a DataPower VM or physical appliance. These steps listed here what is suggested as the process for completing this.

This weekend is my second dance show weekend where I am performing. My elder daughers have done the last six or seven Showtime events with Blue Butterflies. For what ever reason I volenteered to join last year and I performed March. https://chrisphillips-cminion.github.io/apiconnect/2025/03/15/StageTime.html

Well here we go again!

Three shows to go!