German Automotive Company.
Developing a unified API portal using Google Cloud Apigee X service
- Hundreds of APIs now accessible in one place
- Developers can publish and subscribe with ease
- Internal billing is automated and transparent
Project Summary.
About.
This German automotive company is recognized for its expertise in producing high-end vehicles and offering innovative financial and mobility services. With a broad international presence, it operates numerous manufacturing facilities and maintains a global sales network.
The challenges.
The client’s API management landscape was outdated and struggled with scaling, monitoring and connectivity. Hundreds of APIs were scattered across AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, internal data centres and third-party vendors. Developers needed access to these APIs to build apps – like unlocking a car door with a tap – but the process was slow, fragmented and frustrating.
There was no central place to discover APIs, request access, manage approvals, read API documentation or track usage. Internal billing between departments was manual and unclear. Developers were wasting time. Stakeholders were losing visibility. And innovation was getting stuck.
The customer wanted a unified portal – a marketplace for internal APIs – where developers could:
- Discover APIs across all platforms
- Request access with built-in approval flows
- Track usage and costs
- Publish APIs with vendor-specific wizards
- Manage subscriptions securely
All in one place, with a consistent experience, and built for speed and scale.
The solution.
Nordcloud stepped in, not just to build a portal, but to make sense of the chaos. We worked through ambiguity, evolving requirements and stakeholders. With the team of 10, we ran design workshops, built wireframes and backend logic first to create a frontend that worked. Our team included frontend and backend developers, cloud architects, UI designers, a PM and a Scrum Master working iteratively over nearly 3 years, continuously releasing new features to production.
The result? A platform, a marketplace, for developer productivity and efficiency.
Reverse engineering.
Typically, we start with UI design, then build the frontend and APIs ourselves. And usually, we design for non-technical users. This case was different.
Our task was to manage a vast number of APIs built by others – scattered across hyperscalers, data centres and vendors – and develop one portal to bring them together. The customer wanted speed, so we started with the backend logic first. We fully leveraged Google Cloud Apigee X to build and automate the API management layer. Based on backend functionality, we designed the frontend experience.
Flowing data.
Managing user data without storing it in the API backend was a challenge. The portal needed to display and access that data in real time. Our solution? Secure API proxies: data flows through APIs but isn’t stored along the way.
From developers, for developers.
The portal’s users are both producers and consumers of APIs. They can publish APIs to the catalogue and subscribe to others, sometimes even to their own.
And here’s the twist: most users are developers. They don’t care about button colours or fancy animations. They care about automation. They want raw data, cryptic API IDs and fast access for publishing, extracting or searching APIs. That’s what makes them happy – and that’s what we delivered.
The scale.
Normally, applications have a few APIs. Here, we built a central portal managing tens of hundreds of APIs from dozens of vendors – and it’s still growing.
Results.
Hundreds of APIs are now accessible in one place – the API Marketplace Portal run on Google Cloud built with the powerful Google Cloud Apigee X, the API management platform service. The portal is live, growing, and evolving with new features.
Producer tools
Developers can publish their APIs from any cloud with vendor-specific wizards with ease and speed
Consumer tools
Enable searching, subscribing, and tracking API usage
Approval workflows
For secure access to sensitive APIs
Internal billing logic
To manage cross-team costs with automation and transparency
No user data is stored
Instead full access is possible via secure API proxies
Customer teams
Save time, reduce friction and move faster
The users (developers) loved the functionality. They didn’t want flashy animations: they wanted raw data in one place, fast access to find and search APIs and to publish their own APIs easily. In other words, tools that work. And that’s exactly what we delivered.
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