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Back to the Future with the "API Economy": Management Strategies for a New Wave of Integrated Applications - Research and Markets
[January 28, 2016]

Back to the Future with the "API Economy": Management Strategies for a New Wave of Integrated Applications - Research and Markets


Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/6wrn8p/back_to_the) has announced the addition of the "Back to the Future with the "API Economy": Management Strategies for a New Wave of Integrated Applications " report to their offering.

Today, it's more true than ever that everything is connected to everything. And, increasingly, an Application Programming Interface (API) is the connection mechanism. Sometimes described as second-generation Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), API-connected services are proliferating as the preferred method for interacting with cloud services, partner applications, and mobile devices. As the Internet of Things (IoT) and microservices increasingly become part of production ecosystems, the importance of APIs as a preferred connectivity mechanism will continue to escalate.

APIs provide a way for one software application or system to interact with another. Some enterprise IT organizations are acting as API providers - creating APIs to provide access to their own internal systems. Others are acting as API consumers - connecting their own applications to those of other entities by using APIs provided by those entities. And a hefty percentage of companies are doingboth.



However, with all the hype around the so-called API economy, APIs aren't a shiny new technology - they've been around a long time. And in the final analysis, APIs are simply code - proprietary code - allowing disparate systems to interoperate. To put it bluntly, APIs have become the wave of the future surfing on the dry bones of the past.

In a world accustomed to the ease of use and high performance of commercial products supporting Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) and Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) connections, APIs are a clunky, inelegant solution. Each is custom written and must be manually maintained to keep pace with business and industry changes. Performance is variable and unpredictable, based on the connection method, the availability/capacity of back-end systems, and the efficiency of the code itself. As API usage escalates, capacity demands on back-end systems can grow exponentially. And to top it all off, many traditional Application Performance Management (APM (News - Alert)) solutions lack support for API connections, making troubleshooting and root-cause analysis difficult.


So why are companies using APIs? In these times of rapid change, nearly every company is scrambling to adapt to the changes imposed by factors such as mobile, cloud, IoT, and partnership dependencies - and APIs provide the simplest answer available. They may not be pretty, but they (usually) work and are available today. And although APIs may not be the ideal solution, for the moment they are the best solution available.

That being said, automation can smooth the way. Vendors such as IBM and Dell (News - Alert) have created API Gateways and platforms that can help IT organizations minimize the disadvantages of API technology by providing features - such as those supporting security, capacity management, user access, and version management - that were lacking in the API delivery mechanisms of the past.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Overview

2. Summary of Findings

3. Detailed Findings

4. The Role of Tools

5. API Providers

6. API Consumers

7. Summary

Companies Mentioned

- Dell

- IBM (News - Alert)

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/6wrn8p/back_to_the


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