Today, APIs are an important part of how organizations conduct business––from internal APIs that streamline business processes to public APIs that generate revenue for organizations. The rising value of APIs raises the question: are APIs just another technology fad, shining brightly now, but soon to fade out of the spotlight?
Technically speaking, APIs have been around probably as long as software, but I think the real question is whether web APIs – practically-RESTful ones – will be the focus of attention for longer than other bright shiny objects, such as EDI, lean manufacturing, BPR, or ERP.
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An API fragment is a portion of an API specification, which is why understanding it starts at the API specification level. An API spec consists of a plan of how your API should look structurally – like a blueprint of a house.
The API spec documents what an API does and the expected call and response you can expect from it. It’s a key part of API development because it can help you isolate design flaws or problems before you write a line of code. A way to create APIs more efficiently is to get reuse by reusing portions or fragments of APIs into specs.
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Across industries, organizations are realizing the power of reusable APIs to transform the way they do business. Health systems are redefining patient care, retailers are pioneering innovative omnichannel experiences for their customers, and banks have accelerated the speed at which they can bring innovative new products and services to market.
But what about government? How should federal agencies be thinking about leveraging reusable APIs to enable more efficient and cost-effective citizen service and mission delivery?
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At a recent conference, Mike Schlotman, the CFO of US grocery chain Kroger, responded to Amazon’s recent purchase of Whole Foods and what that would mean for the grocery retail industry. He said, “Part of me refuses to believe that everybody is just going to sit at home and everything is going to be brought to their doorstep and nobody is ever going to leave home to do anything again.”
Oh dear.
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API-led connectivity is a holistic way to connect data to applications through reusable, built-for-purpose APIs. Unlike point-to-point approaches to integration, API-led connectivity is premised on the discoverability, self-service, and reuse of well-designed, well-managed APIs.
Businesses in every industry have received numerous benefits to adopting an API-led approach to connectivity, rather than the usual point-to-point approach. Here are the top five benefits to adopting API-led connectivity:
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The Internet of Things (IoT) is supposed to have 10 times the impact of the Web itself, which means it has potentially 10 times the risk for complication, and, with its ubiquity, 10 times the risk to security. Each “Thing” we encounter in our daily and professional lives could potentially be connected within the next couple years. And with so many, many more players, manufacturers, protocols, and programming languages, it all gets exponentially more complicated.
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Read more on the rising value of APIs and how organizations can use APIs to improve business processes and better align IT and the business.
Using Anypoint Platform to improve business processes at MuleSoft has been hugely successful. The good news is that with each successful integration, we are asked to do more and more and more, and we need to figure out how to manage the requests in a sustainable way.
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Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are all around us––whether it is the Google Maps API that enables users to locate their ride on the Uber app or the Facebook API that enables users to log into a number of websites with their Facebook credentials.
Today, the API economy is growing rapidly, with the ProgrammableWeb reporting that there are now over 17,000 APIs available in the market. APIs are becoming an increasingly important part of the applications and devices we use every day. How much do you know about APIs? Test your knowledge with this brief quiz!
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It had just turned 2 a.m. on April 18th, 2003. I was getting ready to release my first open source project, and I was about to pull the trigger on a name. I settled on MULE as I was trying to solve the hard, unrelenting work of connecting applications and data—MULE was going to take the “donkey work” out of integration. What I didn’t know was that I was choosing the stock ticker symbol for a company that would go on to solve much bigger problems for companies globally. It’s pretty cool to reflect on that now, and it has been an amazing experience getting here.
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