HEINEKEN achieves zero downtime with Azure API Management

When CPG giant HEINEKEN set out on its mission to become the world’s best-connected brewer, it saw new technology as an opportunity to move faster, make smarter decisions, accelerate innovation, and stay at the vanguard of the global beer industry.

One of the company’s big realizations was that a future-fit API platform could give developers more agility, standardization, and access to advanced tools. Consequently, developers could build and integrate systems more quickly and easily, enabling new levels of communication, collaboration, and operational speed across the organization.

“Our priority was to build a secure, resilient, cross-enterprise API platform that could grow with us,” says Michel Cornelissen, Tribe Architect for Digital Integration at HEINEKEN. 

To support fast, secure API integration and minimize errors and downtime, the company decided to develop a federated architecture. This framework enabled semi-autonomous interoperability and information sharing across lines of business, applications, and IT systems.

“Our goals were ambitious. Zero downtime, ultra-low latency, security by design, and reduced dependency on MSPs,” explains Ajay Kharade, Global Tribe Lead of Digital Integrations at HEINEKEN. 

Building a scalable API backbone

HEINEKEN chose Microsoft Azure API Management as the centerpiece of the new architecture, working closely with Microsoft to implement the platform. API Management would enable rapid API development, enterprise-grade security, and scalability. It would also help the company standardize and govern APIs across regions. 

Deploying geo-distributed API gateways with support from Azure Application Gateway allowed for localized performance while maintaining centralized control. This approach, aligned with HEINEKEN’s SaaS-first strategy, set the stage for creating reusable, secure APIs that accelerate development, streamline operations, and support consistent, enterprise-wide access to critical services.

Next, HEINEKEN deployed API Management in internal mode, exposing only private endpoints. This design ensured internal control while supporting highly secure public exposure via Application Gateway. The team provisioned the API Management instance in the Azure Portal, establishing it as a centralized, policy-driven gateway across all back-end services.

Following provisioning, APIs were imported to map routes and operations, supporting fast onboarding while providing control over naming conventions, suffixes, and operational behavior.

Developer support and automation

Parallel to technical setup, HEINEKEN launched the customizable developer portal that’s included with API Management. This gave API developers a branded, self-service gateway with API documentation, sample code, testing tools, and sign-in access.

To accelerate API lifecycle management, HEINEKEN Digital Integration is adopting APIOps practices. APIs were stored in Git repositories and deployed via pipelines using Azure DevOps, hosted on Azure Virtual Machines, for full continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) integration.

“With APIOps, we’ve been able to automate deployments and track changes across APIs more effectively, reducing the time to deploy and update services,” says Cornelissen.

HEINEKEN further extended automation, with Azure Functions providing serverless compute for handling background tasks, event triggers, and lightweight integrations with minimal overhead. “With the new system, we can automate tasks and use AI in more tasks than we could on the old platform,” Cornelissen adds.

Supporting systems and intelligent integration

To support real-time communication, high throughput, and reliable data flow, HEINEKEN used an Azure storage account for highly secure, durable data storage and Azure DNS for seamless domain resolution and API endpoint routing. As AI adoption increased, the company began managing intelligent APIs from services like Azure OpenAI in Foundry Models with AI Gateway features in API Management.

“With AI Gateway features in Azure API Management, we’re looking to easily manage generative AI APIs, such as those provided by Azure OpenAI,” says Kharade. “These capabilities enhance security, performance, and reliability for APIs serving intelligent applications.”

HEINEKEN also used the API Apps feature of Azure App Service to automate API documentation updates and facilitate faster deployment workflows.

HEINEKEN’s global API delivery process

The following diagram shows how API consumers in Americas, EMEA, and APAC regions send requests through a global load balancer and Microsoft Defender for APIs. The traffic gets routed to regional API gateways, which connect to localized APIs.

Security, governance, and observability

At the outset, HEINEKEN configured API-level policies to handle traffic throttling, rate limiting, IP filtering, and access control. It used Microsoft Entra ID to validate tokens and enforce identity-based access through policy-based XML configurations.

“There are a wide range of features within Azure API Management to enhance API performance and security. We really appreciate the built-in policies to enforce security, rate limiting, and data transformation,” says Cornelissen.

For compliance, HEINEKEN chose Azure Policy, which offers policy definitions by domain and geography, to help ensure alignment with global regulatory standards. It used a Microsoft Defender for Cloud plan for APIs to add a protective layer against malicious traffic patterns and potential exploits.

Additionally, HEINEKEN used Azure Monitor and Application Insights for logging and monitoring, providing real-time visibility into request patterns, latency, error rates, and system health. Together, these tools help minimize the operational and governance burden on IT teams and enable developers to focus on delivering core business value.

Key learnings

By choosing a federated approach to building its new API platform, HEINEKEN gained the flexibility it needed to transform how knowledge and data are shared across the organization. 

“Azure API Management gave us the ability to fully support federated teams, distribute globally, and provide out-of-the-box solutions for monitoring, observability, and security,” Kharade explains. “This enhances our ability to rely on internal talent and technology across the business as we continue to grow and innovate.”

It also helps HEINEKEN to develop reusable APIs, which can further improve productivity and reduce costs by streamlining integration and enabling flexible, scalable, and secure development. 

By adopting DevOps practices, HEINEKEN has accelerated delivery cycles, reduced time to market, and improved operational efficiency. Seamless B2B integrations allow platforms to process orders, set pricing, and fulfill orders in real time, enhancing customer experience and logistics. 

“The more we can rely on the API platform,” says Mark Sleijpen, Director of Digital Platforms at HEINEKEN, “the less time developers have to spend debugging issues and maintaining the integrity of our digital systems.”

To scale impact across markets, the platform had to do more than connect systems. As Product Owner for HEINEKEN’s global API platform, Pablo Ferreira, explains, “For us, the real step change was treating APIs as reusable products on a shared global platform. We made communication, clear guidelines, training, and self-service first-class features of the API capability. That helped our markets and operating companies feel empowered rather than constrained, and turned IT from a gatekeeper into an enabler for innovation across HEINEKEN.”

High availability and developer independence

Since the new platform’s launch in July 2024, HEINEKEN has experienced exceptional API performance and resilience. The platform is already processing 90% of the company’s API transactions globally, with 100% uptime. “It hasn’t gone down even for a single minute,” says Kharade. In addition, there have been no P1 or P2 platform-related incidents.

Monthly message volume, or the number of API calls made by systems or applications within the new API-led ecosystem, jumped from zero to more than 50 million within around eight months after implementation. This surge demonstrates the platform’s scalability and resilience. At the same time, HEINEKEN’s new API platform helped reduce the cost per call by up to 75%.

Early design decisions—particularly around scalability, governance, and observability—proved critical in speeding global deployment. “The whole process took just about five months. We were surprised by how quickly we were able to set up a platform ready to deploy,” says Sleijpen.

Culturally, the shift to self-service development was just as impactful. Internal teams across global regions were empowered to build, test, and deploy their own APIs, freeing up central IT and promoting shared innovation under a unified governance model.

“We’re excited about what’s possible,” concludes Kharade. “With Azure API Management at our core, we’re ready for an API-first future—where speed, resilience, and innovation are built into every layer of operations.”

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