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# Additional Configurations
To accelerate the connectivity to different backends, discover services, and expose them as managed APIs, you need to configure API providers. You use an API provider to define not only the details of the host you want an application to reach, but also to define any further details that are necessary to establish the connection, for example, proxy settings. For more information, see [API Providers](api-providers-42e13b2.md).
If you want to store data for retrieval at runtime, nonexpiring data that shouldn't be hard-coded in your API proxy logic. You can configure key value maps for retrieval of such data. Key value maps are a custom collection of encrypted key. For more information, see [Key Value Map](key-value-map-3722a39.md).
Certificates give you the credentials and the knowledge needed to create an API ecosystem with the scalability and security. Certificates are configured to confirm the identity of the caller and only if you recognize the identity the API is processed and data is returned. For more information, see [Manage Certificates](manage-certificates-c665875.md).
**Related Information**
[Key Components of an API](key-components-of-an-api-19c0654.md "This section introduces you to some of the key components of an API that you need to know before building APIs.")
[Different Methods of Creating an API Proxy](different-methods-of-creating-an-api-proxy-4ac0431.md "An API proxy is the data object that contains all the functionality to be executed when an external user wants to access the backend service.")
[Edit an API Proxy](edit-an-api-proxy-a64b952.md "Once you’ve created an API proxy you can further change the proxy, either on the Integration Suite, or by using the embedded API designer.")
