SECURE API LIFECYCLE GOVERNANCE FOR CLOUDNATIVE ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS

Abstract

Cloud-native enterprise applications increasingly rely on Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for communication among distributed microservices, external business partners, mobile applications, and cloud platforms. As API ecosystems expand, ensuring secure lifecycle governance has become critical for protecting enterprise data, maintaining regulatory compliance, and ensuring operational reliability. This paper proposes a secure API lifecycle governance framework integrating API security, DevSecOps, machine learning-assisted governance, cloud-native architecture, Industrial API management, continuous monitoring, and automated compliance validation for enterprise applications. The proposed methodology provides end-to-end governance covering API design, implementation, deployment, monitoring, version management, security enforcement, auditing, and retirement. Automated policy validation, intelligent anomaly detection, and continuous lifecycle monitoring improve API reliability while reducing security risks and governance complexity. Experimental evaluation demonstrates improvements in API security, governance efficiency, deployment reliability, compliance management, and enterprise scalability. The proposed framework provides a production-ready solution for secure API lifecycle governance in modern cloud-native enterprise environments. Keywords— API Lifecycle Governance, API Security, Cloud-Native Applications, DevSecOps, API Management, Enterprise Integration, OpenAPI, RAML.