AI Gateway

Most teams are still wiring MCP the wrong way. They let every client talk directly to every tool server, bolt on auth late, and discover too late that “agent integration” silently became a new control plane with no owner, no inventory, and no reliable audit trail. Azure is now mature enough to do this properly, but the platform story is split across API Management, App Service or Functions authorization, Microsoft Foundry, and Microsoft Entra. The hard part is not learning each product in isolation. The hard part is deciding where identity, mediation, delegation, and logging must live so a tool call is still explainable after the fifth preview feature lands. [S1] [S2] [S3] [S4] [S5] [S6] ...

Generative AI is revolutionizing business, offering incredible potential. Yet, for many enterprises, adopting powerful models like those in Azure OpenAI feels like navigating the Wild West. How do you unleash innovation without facing runaway costs, complex security threats, inconsistent usage, and the immense challenge of governing AI responsibly at scale? The answer lies in establishing robust, centralized control. Enter the Azure AI Gateway. It’s absolutely critical to understand this: Azure AI Gateway is not a standalone product. Instead, it refers to a powerful set of capabilities integrated directly into Azure API Management (APIM). Microsoft leverages the mature, battle-tested foundation of APIM to provide a centralized control plane, purpose-built for the unique demands of managing Generative AI workloads within the enterprise. Forget deploying separate gateway software; Azure builds this intelligence into the platform you may already use for API management. ...