The API Gateway Has Grown Up When API gateways first entered the enterprise architecture conversation, the value proposition was straightforward: put a reverse proxy in front of your APIs, enforce authentication, and add basic rate limiting. Problem solved. That framing was adequate for 2012. It's dangerously incomplete for 2026. Today's API gateway sits at the intersection of integration, security, observability, and increasingly AI — and the organizations that still treat it as a sim...