apidays LIVE LONDON - The Road to Embedded Finance, Banking and Insurance with APIs API platform strategy and operating models Kiran Nadgir, Head of API Platforms at Silicon Valley Bank

1. API Platform Strategy & Operating
Models
Kiran Nadgir
Head of API & UX Platforms, Silicon Valley Bank

2. 2
Bank of the
innovation economy
Our mission is to increase the probability of our clients’ success.
For more than 35 years, Silicon Valley Bank has helped
innovators, enterprises and their investors move bold ideas
forward fast.
Today, we provide a full range of banking services to companies
of all sizes in innovation centers around the world.
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VIDEO

3. Our clients are
defining what comes next
3

4. The Jeff Bezos API mandate from 2002
4
• All teams will henceforth expose their data and functionality
through service interfaces.
• Teams must communicate with each other through these
interfaces.
• There will be no other form of inter-process communication
allowed: no direct linking, no direct reads of another team’s
data store, no shared-memory model, no back-doors
whatsoever. The only communication allowed is via service
interface calls over the network.
• It doesn’t matter what technology is used. HTTP, Corba,
Pubsub, custom protocols — doesn’t matter.
• All service interfaces, without exception, must be designed
from the ground up to be externalizable. That is to say, the
team must plan and design to be able to expose the interface
to developers in the outside world. No exceptions.
• Teams should expose data and functionality only through
APIs
• The only way to access data or business capability between
systems is via APIs. No back roads or cow trails are allowed
• Eliminate redundancies, technology spaghettis and
duplication in your systems
• The API should be accessible and consumable by others, how
you build it should not matter
• The information about the API and how to consume it should
be well documented and easily accessible. APIs need to be
designed such that they are externalizable. Focus on
consumption.
What we can learn from itThe mandate

5. Why do API’s matter?
5
The Role of APIs in a Firm’s performance – 2017 research paper.
The research gathered a unique data set involving more than 120 firms that opened APIs and paired this with
measures of firm performance.
10.3%
increase in
market value
Increase in Sales,
net income and
market cap
Decrease in
Operating Costs
Decrease in R&D
expenditure
Internal APIs
result in
increased sales

6. Challenges to Business Agility and Modernization
6
App and
Data Silos
Process centric
not Customer
Centric
Disconnected
Experiences
Layers on top of layers
of legacy
infrastructures and
applications
Focusing here will not solve the
challenges
Multiple legacy and
non-standard
integration channels
and duplication, no
reusable components

7. Know your audience – APIs bring Business & Technology together
7
External : API Consumers Internal : API Publishers
App Developer Customer API Developer Business Stakeholder

8. API Design and Development Lifecycle
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Design
Fail Fast,
Design First,
Design Right
Develop Test Deploy Monitor
Automate
Retire
Evolve

9. Evolve towards composable enterprise
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Customer Experience : Innovation & Business Agility
Business Process Orchestration : Enable composable workflows
Legacy Decoupling : Abstract legacy systems and access to data

10. Operating Models – Centralized vs Federated
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• Aligns with API First approach, all teams are responsible and accountable for developing APIs
• Business is responsible for managing overall external API Product Portfolio
• API C4E team is responsible and accountable for platform build and technical governance for
both internal and external APIs
• API C4E team is responsible for training, consulting and coaching teams to be able to deliver
APIs
• High scalable model since all teams have the skills and knowledge to deliver APIs
• Centralized visibility into the overall product and platform roadmap
• Creates another layer of localized skills
• Domain teams don’t have accountability towards business since they don’t create external
APIs
• Doesn’t align with API First strategy, all teams should have the skills and be accountable to
expose APIs as Products (consumable assets)
• Domain teams get no experience building customer facing APIs
• Extended timelines for delivery
• Model is not scalable, will have to keep increasing the number of resources to be able to
cater to demand
Centralized Governance & Delivery Centralized Governance, Federated Delivery
API development team
Business Stakeholder
Domain team Domain team Domain team
API Center
for
Enablement
Domain
team
Domain
team
Domain
team
Business
Stakeholder
Business
Stakeholder
Business
Stakeholder

11. Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast
11
API initiatives are a journey, not a destination
Launch, Learn and Evolve!