Persistent Systems and Kong announced a strategic partnership focused on helping enterprises securely move artificial intelligence initiatives from experimentation into full-scale production environments. The collaboration is designed to establish a new enterprise architecture for governing APIs, data, and AI systems across hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructures.
The companies said enterprises are increasingly facing operational challenges as AI deployments expand beyond pilot programs. While organizations now have greater access to AI models and tools, the more pressing issue has become how to securely connect, govern, and scale AI systems across distributed environments. According to the companies, APIs, data pipelines, AI models, and autonomous agents are rapidly converging into a unified operational framework, creating new governance and infrastructure demands.
Through the partnership, Persistent will serve as Kong’s global systems integration partner. The companies plan to combine Persistent’s engineering-led delivery capabilities with Kong’s unified API and AI connectivity platform in order to simplify integration efforts, improve governance, and accelerate enterprise AI adoption.
The partnership will enable enterprises to modernize legacy API environments while implementing a governed connectivity layer spanning APIs, data, and AI services. The companies said this approach is expected to reduce operational complexity and costs while supporting high-performance workloads across hybrid and multi-cloud deployments.
The collaboration also focuses on helping enterprises operationalize generative AI and agentic AI workflows, including Model Context Protocol-based architectures. The platform will incorporate enterprise-grade safeguards such as Personally Identifiable Information protection, centralized access management, policy-driven governance, observability tools, and end-to-end audit capabilities.
Persistent said the partnership aligns with its broader AI-first and platform-driven strategy. By integrating Kong’s AI Gateway and connectivity infrastructure with Persistent’s GenAI Hub and engineering services, the companies aim to help organizations transition from isolated AI use cases to governed, production-grade AI systems that can deliver measurable business value with lower operational risk.
Kong noted that APIs are increasingly becoming foundational infrastructure for AI deployments because they connect services, datasets, models, and applications across complex enterprise environments. The company said the partnership with Persistent will help customers modernize integration environments while implementing consistent security policies and governance controls across AI workloads.
Persistent Systems describes itself as a global Digital Engineering and Enterprise Modernization company serving enterprises across industries. Kong develops API and AI connectivity technologies used by enterprises and AI-native companies to manage and govern API and AI traffic across multiple cloud environments.
KEY QUOTES:
“Enterprise AI will not be defined by who has access to models. It will be defined by how effectively organizations can govern how intelligence flows across their systems. APIs are no longer just integration points. They are the control layer for enterprise AI. Our partnership with Kong brings together Persistent’s engineering-led approach with a unified connectivity platform to help clients move from fragmented AI initiatives to scalable, production-grade systems. Together, we are enabling enterprises to build AI that is secure, controlled and ready to deliver real business outcomes.”
Anand Krishnan, Executive Vice President, Persistent
“Enterprises are moving fast to put AI into production, and APIs are critical for connecting services, data, and model endpoints across complex environments. At Kong, we are building the AI Connectivity infrastructure so organizations can secure, manage, govern, and scale traffic across APIs and AI workloads on any model or any cloud. We are excited to have Persistent as a key global integration partner, bringing deep digital engineering expertise that complements our unified API and AI platform. Together, we can help customers modernize integration and deploy enterprise AI with consistent policy enforcement, secure access controls, and strong observability and audit trails.”
Ken Kim, Senior Vice President And Head Of Business Development, Kong
