What is the primary function of Amazon API Gateway?

The primary function of Amazon API Gateway is to create, publish, maintain, monitor, and secure APIs. This service allows developers to define the APIs that will serve as the interface for their applications to interact with backend services and resources. API Gateway facilitates the API lifecycle by providing tools for designing, deploying, monitoring usage, and managing security policies and access for APIs.

By using API Gateway, developers can easily handle tasks such as traffic management, authorization and access control, and version management. This enables them to create robust and scalable APIs that can connect various services, including AWS Lambda functions, other AWS services, and on-premises resources, thus enhancing the application development process.

The other options do not accurately represent the primary function of API Gateway. For instance, while data storage is crucial in many applications, Amazon S3 and other services are designed specifically for that purpose. Managing containerized applications aligns more with services like Amazon ECS or EKS, and real-time analytics is better served by services such as Amazon Kinesis. Thus, the correct answer highlights the specific role of API Gateway in API management and security, emphasizing its importance in modern application architectures.