The session material for the meetups in New Zealand for Auckland and Wellington Microservices groups. Supported by CA and Deloitte.

1. Digital Economy and APIs
API Strategy Best Practice
Alex Wilson. CISSP
API Evangelist and Educator
New Zealand – December 2016
Alexb.Wilson@ca.com

2. 2 © 2016 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Reference Material for further reading
 Cattle v Pets
 https://www.infoq.com/articles/microservices-revolution
 Conway
 https://www.infoq.com/articles/agile-sailors-microservices
 Apple – dog food lesson
 http://nordicapis.com/lessons-learned-apples-api-strategy/
 API Academy
 http://www.apiacademy.co/

3. 3 © 2016 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
What is a “Web API”?
Technical Definition
• A network-addressable (usually by HTTP) interface that
enables state transfer of data representations
Fielding, R. T. (2000). Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software
Architectures. http://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/top.htm
Cox, J.(2001). Network World. Jan. 29, 2001. Volume 18, No.
5. https://books.google.ca/books?id=dBsEAAAAMBAJ

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So what’s the big deal?
http://history.apievangelist.com/

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The Business Value of APIs
It’s not what they are,
it’s what they enable

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Common Questions
Is this Digital Transformation in
action?
How can I leverage this?
How much can I do?

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Alignment &
Usefulness
Engagement
& Usability
Scalability &
Evolvability
Manageability
& Security
API360: An Enterprise Model for API Success

8. 8 © 2016 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Alignment &
Usefulness
Engagement
& Usability
Scalability &
Evolvability
Manageability
& Security
API360: An Enterprise Model for API Success

9. 9 © 2016 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Alignment & Usefulness
A company’s APIs should align
with its business goals
A company’s APIs should be
useful to a target audience

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API Strategy Anti-Patterns
• For Open APIs, don’t assume that “if you build it they
will come”Faith in the Long Tail
• Don’t start by trying to build the complete set of
perfect APIs that will serve every possible consumerService Perfectionism
• Don’t start by picking languages, frameworks and
software components
Technological
Obsession
• Don’t let single API consumer projects (e.g. mobile)
put in long term barriersTunnel Vision

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Successful Strategy
Strategy = Goals +
Plan + Execution

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http://www.amazon.com/The-Everything-Store-
Bezos-Amazon-ebook/dp/B00BWQW73E
Alignment & Usefulness Case Study: Amazon

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“We don’t make money when we sell things.
We make money when we help customers make purchase decisions.”
Idealism Pragmatism
Alignment & Usefulness Case Study: Amazon

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Alignment & Usefulness – Key Questions
What are my
business goals, and
how can APIs help
me achieve them?
Do I have funded
projects that could
benefit from APIs?
What are the gaps
in my industry that
can be exploited
through APIs?
What business
model does my API
enable or extend?

15. 15 © 2016 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Alignment &
Usefulness
Engagement
& Usability
Scalability &
Evolvability
Manageability
& Security
API360: An Enterprise Model for API Success

16. 16 © 2016 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Engagement & Usability
A company should focus on
engaging its target developers
APIs should be easy for these
developers to use

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Engagement & Usability Case Study: Twilio

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Engagement & Usability Case Study: Twilio

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Engagement & Usability
Case Study: Twilio
Competition in the
communication API
marketplace

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Engagement & Usability Case Study: Twilio
Keys to Success
•Aggressive Marketing
•First Mover Advantage
•Focus on usability

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Engagement & Usability Case Study: Twilio
•Developer registrations
•TTHW (Time to “Hello World”)
•Developer community activity
API Usability Metrics:

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Engagement & Usability – Key Questions
Who are the intended
and expected
consumers of my
APIs?
How do I attract and
retain the right
consumers and
developers?
How do I factor my
API consumer needs
into my API design?
How do I continually
enhance the
developer experience
(DX) for my API?

23. 23 © 2016 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Alignment &
Usefulness
Engagement
& Usability
Scalability &
Evolvability
Manageability
& Security
API360: An Enterprise Model for API Success

24. 24 © 2016 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Scalability & Evolvability
APIs should be able to shrink
and grow with the business
APIs should be able to change
and adapt over time

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Good Enterprise Architecture
DO
• Focus on the horizon
• Synthesize multiple
perspectives
• Impose appropriate
constraints
DO NOT
• Obsess about
standardization
• Only care about
technology
• Favour model over
reality

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SOA, APIs & Microservice Architecture (μSA)
Decompose
systems into
reusable services.
That’s good!
Respect the
human element.
That’s new!
Be good at change, be
prepared for failure.
That’s novel!

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Scalability & Evolvability – Key Questions
What factors will
affect the design
time scalability of
my APIs?
How should I
version my APIs?
What are the
technology trends I
need to consider for
my APIs?
What are the
organizational
constraints that will
affect my success?

28. 28 © 2016 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Alignment &
Usefulness
Engagement
& Usability
Scalability &
Evolvability
Manageability
& Security
API360: An Enterprise Model for API Success

29. 29 © 2016 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Manageability & Security
It should be easy to see and
control an API’s activity
An API should only give the right
data to the right consumers

30. 30 © 2016 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Manageability & Security – Key Questions
What metrics do I
need for my APIs?
How can I control
access to my APIs
without putting up
new barriers?
Who are the
principals involved in
my APIs and how can
I protect privacy?
What new threats do
I need to protect
against for APIs?

31. 31 © 2016 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
The Five Pillars of API Management
From https://www.ca.com/us/collateral/ebooks/na/5-pillars-of-api-management.aspx

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Alignment &
Usefulness
Engagement
& Usability
Scalability &
Evolvability
Manageability
& Security
Summary
API360: An Enterprise Model for API Success

33. 33 © 2016 CA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

34. Microservices – What use are they?
Alex Wilson. CISSP
API Evangelist and Educator

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Marc Andreessen
“This is a pattern that we love
to fund:
unbundle X from Y, but then
use the liberation of X as
leverage to do amazing new
things with X.”

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«unbundled by»
Remember AOL?

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«unbundled by»

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«unbundled by»

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Unbundling
(the) greatest disruptor of tech industry
“The most unbundled form
of your product portfolio
are your APIs”
– Irakli Nadareishvili. API Academy

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“Microservices unbundle
your business for internal and
[controlled] external
disruption”
Lesson

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Once upon a time…

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Software engineering today…

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μ

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49. What are
Microservices?

50. A microservice is an
independently deployable
component of bounded scope
that supports interoperability
through message based
communications.

51. Microservice Architecture is
a style of engineering highly-
automated, evolvable software
systems made up of
capability-aligned
microservices.

52. Small
Continuous
improvement
Evolutionary Automated
Loosely
Coupled
Container-
based
Conway’s law
Independent
Deployability
Decentralized
Governance
Decentralized
Data
Immutable Message Based
Service-
oriented
Products not
Projects
Smart
Endpoints
Dumb Pipes
Bounded in
Scope
Modular
Smart
Endpoints
Continuous
Deployment
Asynchronous
Messaging
Interoperable
Capability
Aligned
Design for
Failure
Event Based Autonomous

53. Small
Continuous
improvement
Evolutionary Automated
Loosely
Coupled
Container-
based
Conway’s law
Independent
Deployability
Decentralized
Governance
Decentralized
Data
Immutable Message Based
Service-
oriented
Products not
Projects
Smart
Endpoints
Dumb Pipes
Bounded in
Scope
Modular
Smart
Endpoints
Continuous
Deployment
Asynchronous
Messaging
Interoperable
Capability
Aligned
Design for
Failure
Event Based Autonomous

54. Microservice Complexity
• Microservices are simple
• Microservice systems are complex

55. A microservice is an independently
deployable component of bounded
scope that supports interoperability
through message based communications.

57. Microservice Architecture is a style
of engineering highly-automated,
evolvable software systems made up
of capability-aligned microservices.

58. Service
(micro)
Solution
(macro)
Organization Culture
Process
and
Tools

59. The Microservices Way
Speed and Safety at Scale
and in Harmony

60. Examples of Increasing Speed
• Zero bureaucracy, don’t ask for permission
• Zero validation, don’t test anything
• Increase change frequency
• Higher faster programmers
• Use un-constrained languages and tools
• Change production directly

61. Facebook’s Motto
Move Fast and Break
Things
“
”
Mark Zuckerberg

62. We want to combine the extraordinary
customer-serving capabilities that are enabled
by size with the speed of movement,
nimbleness, and risk-acceptance mentality
normally associated with entrepreneurial start-
ups.
Jeff Bezos Wants Amazon to be Fast
“
”
Jeff Bezos
Amazon 2015 Letter to Shareholders

63. Examples of Increasing Safety
• Strong governance, control everything
• Always validate, test everything
• Reduce change frequency
• Higher safer programmers
• Use constrained languages and tools
• No access to production environments

64. Facebook’s Motto (reprised)
Move Fast and Break
Things
“
”

65. Facebook’s Motto (reprised)
Move Fast and Break
Things
“
”
Move Fast with
Stable Infra
“
”
Facebook’s motto in 2014

67. Applying the Microservices Way
1. Establish the right boundaries everywhere
2. Build a system that makes change feel easy and safe
3. Implement the right processes and standards
4. Steer the system and measure it
5. Accept that right, easy and safe are a product of time
and context

68. Thank you!