The API Economy is exploding, and this presentation explains how to extend your brand, accelerate new channel adoption and operate with API best practices.

1. Best Practices
The Role of API
Management
Copyright © 2001-2012 SOA Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All content subject to confidentiality agreement between SOA Software and Customer.
www.soa.com

2. The API Economy
--Based on directory of 6,000 web
APIs listed at ProgrammableWeb,
May 2012
www.soa.com

3. APIs are an Effect, not a Cause
• Extend/embed your
brand
• Enable new
channels/devices to
reach:
– Partners
– App Developers
– Employees (BYOD)
• Create stickiness for
your products or services
www.soa.com

4. Extend your brand
www.soa.com

5. Accelerate New Channels
• In the beginning
companies reached their
customers using:
–
–
–
–
The phone
Snail mail
Advertising
Yellow Pages
www.soa.com

6. Accelerate New Channels
• Then they invested in web
sites
• Initially just marketing
themselves
• Then eCommerce
• Those that didn’t….aren’t
www.soa.com

7. Accelerate New Channels
• With the cellphone and mobile
internet came more pressures
• Companies extended their
web presence with mobile
(WAP) versions of their
existing site
• Limited success
www.soa.com

8. Accelerate New Channels
• The iPhone effect
• Mobile web browsers are not
adequate…
• ..so companies build their
own Apps to provide a rich
experience to their consumers
www.soa.com

9. Accelerate New Channels
• If building your own
App helps reach your
own consumers….
www.soa.com

10. Accelerate New Channels
• If building your own
App helps reach your
own consumers….
• A Developer
Community building
tens, hundreds, or
even thousands of
Apps…
www.soa.com

11. Accelerate New Channels
• If building your own
App helps reach your
own consumers….
• A Developer
Community building
tens, hundreds, or
even thousands of
Apps…
• Can reach consumers
in ways you can’t even
dream of
www.soa.com

12. Accelerate New Channels
• Building the enterprise
Website reached 20%
of your market…
• For 80% of your total
development
investment
www.soa.com

13. Accelerate New Channels
• Building APIs reaches
the remaining 80% of
your market.
• For only 20% of your
total development
investment
www.soa.com

14. Accelerate new channels
• APIs =
– more apps,
– more developers,
– more partners
• Through
Federation
www.soa.com

15. Create stickiness
• Customers are fickle
• Exposing your business in greater ecosystems
[via APIs] builds dependence on your product
or service
www.soa.com

16. Review
• Extend/embed your brand
– Use well defined APIs to control the rendering of your
syndicated/shared content
• Enable new channels/devices
– Significantly reduce technical hurdles to business integration of
partners or new sales channels
– Use federation to rapidly expand the eco-system of your
business
• Create stickiness to your products or services
– Make your products or services relevant in related activities to
build dependence on your offering
www.soa.com

17. Review
www.soa.com

18. Best Practices
• Build the right API - Your API must
be a product
• Build it the right way – Build from
the outside in
• Run it successfully – Protect, secure,
Manage, Measure
• Share it aggressively – Publish,
support, syndicate
• -> Build an API Platform
www.soa.com

19. The Enterprise API Platform
• Think about your
customers’ needs, the
apps that will meet those
needs, and the APIs that
will be needed to support
them
• There will likely be a
technology and capability
gap between the APIs and
your backend systems
www.soa.com

20. 1 - Rehashing mashups?
• There are hundreds of
technologies out there to
build APIs
• Two key factors:
– The number, type and
abilities of development
resources at your
disposal.
– The presence of, and
complexity of, the
backend services and
data sources
• Having backend services
(SOA) greatly increases
your time to market
www.soa.com

21. 2 - Sandbox
• The Sandbox should
provide a simple test
platform for developers.
• For sensitive
data/transactions it may
provide a dummy
application front-end
• Could also support App
verification
www.soa.com

22. 3 - developer.yourcompany.com
• The Developer Portal is
the focal point for your
API initiative
• Describes the value of
the API
• Hosts technical and
legal documentation
• Support the developers
• Lifecycle and workflow
of Apps and Apis
www.soa.com

23. 4 – API Security and Management
• Support all non-functional
requirements
–
–
–
–
–
API Security, incl. OAuth
Traffic Monitoring
QoS Management
Caching
App Management &
Provisioning
– Policy and Plan
Management
www.soa.com

24. 5 – Lifecycle Management
• Your API initiatives will
have to integrate with
your existing SDLC
• The dependencies on
backend services and
systems will drive the
need for an integrated
approach to lifecycle
and operations
management
www.soa.com

25. On-premise or in the Cloud
• The API Platform, or
components of it are
now available as a PaaS
offering
• This allows you to
accelerate time-tomarket and lower your
initial setup costs
www.soa.com

26. Product Overview
Copyright © 2001-2012 SOA Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All content subject to confidentiality agreement between SOA Software and Customer.
www.soa.com

27. SOA Governance & API Management
www.soa.com

28. Thanks…
•
•
•
•
•
Alistair Farquharson, CTO, SOA Software
alistair.farquharson@soa.com
https://twitter.com/afarqu
@atmosphere_api
@SOASoftwareInc
www.soa.com