Taking Big Data to the next level by adding APIs. Thinking through data as a product and how to distribute it. Talk at Strata Hadoop 2014 http://strataconf.com/strataeu2014

1. APIs and Unlocking the
Value of Your Data
Steven Willmott
3scale Inc.
@3scale - http://www.3scale.net

2. Powering 450+ APIs
Billions API Calls / Month
Flexible Scalable API Infrastructure: http://3scale.net
@3scale
Also see http://www.apitools.com/
me: @njyx on twitter

3. To the content…

4. “Data is becoming the new raw material of
business.” Chris Lynch and/or Craig Mundie
“Data really powers everything we do.” Jeff
Weiner

5. Good user interfaces are hard to build
You often need to move data around
Speed can be critical
Multiple parties may need access

6. APIs make this happen
- the interfaces to data that
deliver its value

7. Examples
Xignite’s realtime MarketData –
over 500 Streams
Aetna Carepass Restful API to
Read/Write patient data
Realtime fleet management
& Long term analytics
Realtime pricing in Retail

8. So APIs complement data … what
does this mean?

9. Think of your data (and
inferences) as a product, and
APIs as distribution

10. For both internal and
external consumption

11. Data “product thinking”

12. Data Close Up
Inferred
Data
Raw Read /
Write
Control
Interfaces

13. Four Key Questions
• What am I Exposing?
• Who to?
• Why?
• How?

14. These are critical for APIS

15. Q1: What am I Exposing?
What?
Single Entries,
Dumps, Streams Raw
Insight
Projections, Alerts,
Aggregations
Control
Settings, Params,
Config, Schemas

16. Q2: Who to?
Who?
Departments,
C-Team,
Automated Sys
Internal
Customer Users, Buyers
Partner
Suppliers,
Distributors,
Resellers

17. Q3: Why?
Agility
Scale
Stickiness
Add Value
Direct
Monetization
OffBoarding
Transparency
Configurability

18. Raw
Internal Customer Partner
Insight
Control
Transparency
Monetization
Offboarding
Agility
Stickiness
Configurabilit
y
Reach
Value

19. Raw
Internal Customer Partner
Insight
Control
Bandwidth $
Compute $
Risk
Coupling
Training
Value Capture
Scale
Complexity

20. Q4: How?
Tier Based
Tech
Business
Free
Unit Based
Tier Dependent
Flat Rate
Feature Based
Message Bus
SOAP
REST*
Post REST
Streaming
Proprietary

21. Examples

22. Raw
Internal Customer Partner
Insight
Control
Reach / Scale
Value / Complexity
(Main focus of each company – many companies cover multiple cases)

23. Example: Customer Insight
Sticky High Value
Monetization
Reach
Education &
Customer Onboard
Traffic Scale
Compute & Storage Cost
https://www.fullcontact.com/developer/

24. Example: Customer Control
Sticky High Value
Customizable
Agility
Education &
Customer Onboard
Risk
Complexity & Scale
http://www.johnsoncontrols.com/content/us/en/products/building_efficiency/building/panoptix.html

25. Raw
Internal Customer Partner
Insight
Control
Reach / Scale
Value / Complexity
(Main focus of each company – many companies cover multiple cases)

26. Summary

27. Key Take-away:
Your data is a product: think
hard about packaging,
distribution (APIs)

28. Implications
• Answer the four questions
• This will determine your likely benefits and pain
points
• Short term hacks around these pain points will
probably kill the value of what you are doing
• There is a lot of value to created!

29. Go forth and unleash your data!
steve@3scale.net
@njyx, @3scale
Find us online at:
http://www.3scale.net/
http://apitools.com/