The future: For everything an API

It’s becoming apparent already: Anything that consumes power is going to be connected in some way to the Internet. Cars, refrigerators, thermostats, TV, personal drones, you name it. There will be a way to connect with it, interact with it, and control it.

APIs are a powerful way to glean extra value from an enterprise’s data assets and digital resources, extending the reach of products and services, building the brand, and even generating revenue. It requires a thoughtful approach and commitment of resources to make it work.

“We call it the ‘Internetting space,’” says Kamenetska. “We’re really in a post-website era…Anything that you touch is going to become Internet-enabled, and the apps that are going to be there and the experience that you’re going to be having on those devices are really made possible by APIs.”



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Performance monitoring: There’s an API for that

While IT departments are quickly racing into the private API game with their own data, they’re also being transformed by the ability to consume a greater number of vendor services by API. For example, data access via API can help ensure competitive performance for websites and apps by providing timely access to actionable data, and the ability to quickly filter the noise from the meaningful numbers. Keynote offers APIs that enable clients to grab their data in real time in order to create the visualizations that best serve their operational data needs — including combining with data from other sources — and to leverage software tools to quickly surface potential performance issues. -

With our API, Keynote frees client data from our systems,” says Aaron Rudger, product marketing manager at Keynote Systems. “Operations groups need to implement their own analysis, and integrate multiple tools to do their job. All their data is more valuable if it can be leveraged together. The Keynote API lets them pull in their performance data to use however they need it.

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Birth of the Web API

APIs did not start with the Web. In fact, one of the most successful API stories ever is the Microsoft Windows API, which enabled all those third-party developers to create applications for Windows, and in turn propel it to near-monopoly status in desktop operating systems. Today, though, the talk is all about Web APIs and the interconnected ecosystems they support.

Among the earliest players to embrace Web APIs were the Internet giants-to-be such as Google, Amazon, and Salesforce. They started leveraging APIs in their early days, which helped them to become the dominant online forces they are today.

“They looked at these platforms they were creating and asked themselves, how do we generate interest?” says John Rakowski, a Forrester Research analyst serving infrastructure and operations professionals. “How do we generate further partnerships with our customers and with partners out there who can help us innovate a lot quicker, who can utilize our platform to build our brand, but also to create a partner ecosystem?”
The answer was to pursue a proactive API strategy, reaching out to developers and supporting them as they created their own layers of interface and functionality on top of Google’s or Amazon’s or Salesforce’s data. The developers could be using the APIs to create applications for niche markets, or to integrate with other applications.

In addition to creating a partner ecosystem, Rakowski says that opening up a platform via APIs “also gets your brand out there and makes people aware of it very, very quickly, because they can interact with your platform, which means all-in-all, it leads to faster growth because there’s more awareness of your platform in the market.”

Source: Keynote Benchmark

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An Overview Of APIs And How They're Changing

Virtually anything you do online all day long — and virtually everything that makes the Internet in 2013 so convenient, helpful, portable, and smart — is made possible through the magic of APIs. Application Programming Interfaces enable all the devices on the Internet to access data and resources without the user having to actually visit the source.

It’s reasonable to say that APIs have totally made the online experience what it is today. They extend our Internet connection far beyond the browser to phones and tablets and every kind of connected device, to the point where one no longer thinks of being “online” — we’re just connected. And when you’re accessing the Internet the old-fashioned way, through a browser on a computer, APIs have transformed websites into data-driven, interactive, media-rich experiences.

Before long, everything we do, from driving our cars to managing our health and finances to entertaining ourselves to controlling every gadget, system and device in our lives, will be accomplished through the interaction of APIs.

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