Hello everyone thank you for joining the call today. I am laura heritage. I am a principal solution architect for Enterprise API Platforms. I have been working with companies all over the world for the past 10 years establishing AP and SOA strategies. Today I am going to share my experiences on API Management Adoption Patterns.
You can follow me on twitter @heritagelaura
We have all hear about the explosion in the API Economy. The promises APIs brings when opening up your business. But what are enterprises really doing in this space is a common question. Even just a few months ago, I have talked to enterprises who say they are just not ready, not mature enough to go completely external. Or even that is not there busines. So How are enterprises getting started.
There are four main adoption patterns I am seeing right now. Internal, Mobile, Partner and External Innovation. As you can see APIs are largely being adopted within the enterprises. We will walk through each of these adoption patterns to understand the drivers for the adoption.
Lets start with Internal Adoption. Within Internal Adoption there are several different use cases / scenarioes and they are typically based on maturity.
Lets go into details of each one of these scenarios
Most Enterprises do not get a clean slate to start from. The lucky ones have a well definite SOA initiative or a good understanding of SOA principles and practices from which they can extend. But a large majority of enterprises have to contend with hundred of not well designed services and move forward from there.
The Internal – APIs within an LOB often brings up the SOA vs API discusses and the services vs API debate. I think now the debates has settled down and realized APIs are an extension of SOA. That service management and API management solution should converge. In the interest of time that is all I will say on this matter.
What do APIs inside the enterprise look like?
They are typically private APIs and/or service
You typically know the consumer and the consumption is manual. Typically they are used point to point and with only one consumer.
They can be highly sensitive data.
What are the drivers / benefits?
Common concerns
This is where the promise of SOA is being realized through APIs. APIs are making it easier to consume across LOB. API Platforms that are in the market today help make the consumption easier but also help socialize the quality and provide trust amongst LOB. I also think there as been a shift in the not invented here syndrome as well. Where it is now “cool” to reuse and invent on top.
This Adoption pattern is more about the enterprise as the consumer of APIs. It is the fastest growing and presents unique challenges.
I separated out Mobile from internal consumption as it has unique characteristic and is a large driver for external APIs.
Use examples from WestJest and screen scraping the travel agents do.
Use example from best buy about the partners forcing them to do it
Use an example from First Data on keeping pace with developers
If your wearable doesn’t have an API you are creating a silo and not participating in the IoT. The true internet of this happens when users are able to selectively share their data.
