As we enter a new decade, APIs are involved in many current technology trends. Web APIs are common in microservices, service mesh, public cloud platforms, machine learning, and smart devices. In this inaugural episode of the APIs Unplugged podcast, Mike Amundsen (MuleSoft API Strategy Advisor) and Matt McLarty (MuleSoft Global API Strategy Leader) discuss the most significant technical trends related to APIs for 2020.
It was inevitable! With such euphoria greeting the concept of microservice architecture in 2014, it was only a matter of time before the trough of disillusionment swallowed the hype. What started with blogs like “What are microservices?” and “Reducing technical debt with microservices,” peaked with articles like “Can microservices save U.S. Retailers?” and “Why microservices are the foundation to a digital future,” has now come crashing down with pieces like “Goodbye microservices” and “Monoliths are the future.” Where did it all go wrong?
API New Year! Before jumping headlong into the new decade, I want to take a moment and revisit some of the API strategy highlights in 2019. I covered several topics on the MuleSoft blog last year, but here are some of the bigger non-blog items worth giving a second — or first — look.
Let’s face it: digital transformation isn’t about digitizing. Every company is already using digital information and software applications, and those who are converting paper records and processes to digital ones are hardly getting ahead of the curve. Digital transformation is about surviving and thriving in the digital economy. Where the 20th century industrial economy was relatively stable for successful corporations, this century’s economy is volatile. There is money to be made, but each coin has an opportunity on one side and a threat on the other.
It is finally happening. After ten years of prophecies, preaching, and product launches, the API economy has crossed the chasm. And it’s happening worldwide.
GraphQL offers a new style of API design intended to provide API consumers with unified access to back-end data and services. In spite of this seemingly universal aim, GraphQL has created a schism in the API community between those who believe it is superior to state of the industry RESTful API design and those who believe it is naively re-introducing solved API design problems. This blog examines GraphQL,
Lisa Oshima is a consultant specializing in digital strategy, business development, and developer marketing. She founded the Socialize Mobilize consultancy in 2003 and has been helping companies of all sizes transform digitally ever since. We spoke to Lisa about how APIs fit into the overall context of the digital economy.
Time flies! It’s been six months since I joined MuleSoft as Global Leader of API Strategy. In that time I’ve met and worked with an incredible group of people covering all aspects of our business, worked with customers on their digital journeys, and spoken at the first two CONNECT events in Atlanta and San Francisco. Mostly, though, I’ve been focused on creating workshops that will help organizations determine how APIs can support their business strategies and digital transformations.
Jeff Sussna is a leading voice in the DevOps community. Advocating the approach of “moving fast without breaking things,” he helps organizations evolve toward high-performing teams in an agile ecosystem of people, products, practices, and promises. I spoke to Jeff recently about the most effective techniques he’s seeing and how they can be employed at an organization implementing an API program.
More than a decade on, the API economy continues to boom. As digital transformation sweeps organizations of every size in every industry and API-enabled digital channels like smart home devices become mainstream, the importance of APIs in people’s everyday lives is only increasing. However, just as the original gold rush that ballooned the population and wealth of San Francisco had devastating consequences for California’s original inhabitants, the 21st-century digital gold rush for which Silicon Valley stakes a major claim also has its collateral damage.
