A recent digital outage highlighted the critical role of Domain Name System (DNS) services and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) in maintaining the uptime and security of online platforms. The outage, caused by a software bug, affected a major distributed edge computing platform's DNS, leading to widespread downtime and illustrating the costly impact on businesses reliant on continuous service availability. APIs, essential for connecting software components, face threats from poor performance and ineffective security, necessitating robust management to prevent downtime and security breaches. Effective API performance requires optimizing availability and latency, while security demands strict access control and traffic management to prevent unauthorized access and cyberattacks. Solutions like API gateways can enhance performance by providing scalable, reliable, and secure connectivity. Modernizing API infrastructure through decentralized architecture and traffic management plugins can mitigate risks, ensuring consistent application availability and safeguarding organizations from potential digital disasters.