Multi-Cloud API and AI Infra Gets Smarter: Managed Redis for Kong DCGW

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The multi-cloud advantage

Kong's Dedicated Cloud Gateways already stand alone in the market as the only API management solution offering truly vendor-managed deployments across all three major cloud service providers: AWS, Azure, and GCP. With DCGW, organizations can deploy Kong Gateway infrastructure in over 25 regions globally while maintaining a 99.99% SLA for multi-region deployments that matches or exceeds what major CSPs offer for single-region deployments.

Unlike traditional cloud-native API gateways that lock you into a single provider, DCGWs deliver the best of both worlds: the operational simplicity of fully managed infrastructure with the strategic flexibility of multi-cloud deployment. This addresses the common platform team concern: "We really want to offload the infra side of this, but we're also on a multi-cloud journey, and vendor-managed solutions don't give us the flexibility to deploy in our CSP of choice."

Managed Redis for DCGW is coming: Removing the last infrastructure barriers

The next step for Konnect DCGWs eliminates one of the final friction points in adopting enterprise-grade API management capabilities. Many of Kong Gateway's most powerful plugins — including Rate Limiting, Proxy Caching, and AI Rate Limiting — require Redis for shared state management. Previously, customers needed to provision, manage, and maintain their own Redis infrastructure, creating significant barriers to adoption.

The new DCGW Managed Redis feature will change everything. With an end-of-October launch target, you can expect the following to be available very soon:

• Instant plugin activation: No more infrastructure tickets or Redis expertise requirements. Critical capabilities like caching and rate limiting can now be activated in minutes rather than weeks. The Redis instances are automatically co-located with your gateway data planes in your chosen cloud regions, ensuring optimal performance and minimal latency.
• Enterprise-grade performance: With dedicated Redis instances deployed directly within your gateway's cloud region, you get native performance with sub-millisecond response times. This co-location architecture eliminates the network hops and latency issues that plague external Redis deployments.
• Zero operational overhead: Kong handles all Redis lifecycle management: provisioning, monitoring, scaling, security patches, and maintenance. Configuration is seamlessly integrated into the Konnect APIs and UI, maintaining the same operational simplicity that makes DCGWs powerful.

The AI strategy connection: Why this matters now, and why we’re talking about it at API Summit

As organizations accelerate their AI initiatives, API infrastructure becomes the critical backbone for AI service delivery. The managed Redis capability is particularly crucial for several AI-specific use cases:

AI rate limiting and quota management

AI workloads are expensive and resource-intensive. With managed Redis, organizations can now implement sophisticated rate limiting and quota management across their AI APIs without infrastructure complexity using dedicated cloud deployments of Kong AI Gateway. This enables:

• Token-based billing and consumption tracking
• Model-specific rate limiting to prevent runaway costs
• Fair usage policies across different user tiers
• Burst protection for high-value AI services

Intelligent caching for AI responses

Large Language Model (LLM) calls can be costly and slow. Managed Redis enables sophisticated caching strategies that can dramatically reduce AI infrastructure costs while improving response times:

• Semantic response caching for similar queries
• Model-specific cache policies
• Intelligent cache invalidation based on context freshness
• Cost optimization through reduced LLM API calls

Multi-cloud AI resilience

AI services often require access to different cloud providers' AI capabilities — AWS Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, Google Vertex AI. With DCGW's multi-cloud architecture and managed Redis, organizations can build resilient AI platforms that seamlessly failover between providers while maintaining consistent performance and state management.

Global AI service distribution

AI applications require low-latency access globally. The combination of DCGW's 30+ regional deployments with co-located Redis instances enables organizations to deploy AI services close to users worldwide while maintaining consistent caching and rate-limiting policies.

Real-world impact: From infrastructure burden to business value

This enhancement transforms how platform teams approach API infrastructure. Instead of dedicating engineering resources to Redis operations, teams can focus on building differentiated AI capabilities and business logic.

Before: Complex infrastructure setup requiring cross-team coordination

• Platform team provisions Redis clusters
• Security team implements connection protocols
• Operations team monitors and maintains Redis
• Development teams wait weeks for caching capabilities

After: One-click activation of enterprise capabilities

• Navigate to Konnect Gateway Manager
• Enable managed Redis with a single configuration
• Activate caching and rate-limiting plugins immediately
• Focus engineering resources on AI innovation

Looking forward: The foundation for advanced capabilities

Managed Redis for DCGWs represents more than just operational simplification — it establishes a centralized shared state management layer that enables future advanced capabilities. This foundation supports Kong's roadmap for intelligent, AI-powered API management features that require distributed state coordination.

As AI continues to reshape how organizations build and deliver services, having the right API infrastructure becomes increasingly critical. Kong's Dedicated Cloud Gateways with managed Redis provide the multi-cloud flexibility, enterprise performance, and operational simplicity that AI-first organizations need to succeed.

Want to learn more? Register for API Summit

We'll be talking about Konnect Dedicated Cloud Gateways and larger AI and API strategy topics at API Summit 2025, live in New York City this October. Reserve your spot now to learn more about how to introduce multi-cloud value into your API and AI programs. We look forward to seeing you there