The Future of the API Products Landscape
API ProductsAPI AutomationMicroservices

The Future of the API Products Landscape

A Harvard Business Review article titled, APIs Aren't Just For Tech Companies, states: "You don't have to be a tech company to reap the benefits of APIs – the opportunity exists in every industry.” This is the future of API products, as consumers’ expectations evolve; APIs are critical business assets and not independent codebases.

Whether companies’ APIs are custom built by a team or purchased as an online software-as-a-service (SaaS), this landscape that allows connections across organizations requires management. As businesses move faster, there needs to be a method to the madness, which is why businesses are moving towards API centricity and self-service.

The future and organization of the global API landscape depend on how companies manage the entire API lifecycle. At APIwiz, that’s why we are passionate about helping developers embed best practices when building or managing APIs through one unified platform without having to learn everything from scratch.

Here are the trends to watch out for in the changing API landscape.

A hybrid world: Democratizing the approach with API automation

McKinsey estimates that more than 20% of the global workforce could work out of the office without impacting productivity. But finding a universal way of integrating and managing these environments is essential in 2022 to lead successful digital transformation.

The rise of hybrid, distributed ecosystems also adds complexity to the API landscape. That’s why API automation will play a key role in connecting work environments.

A platform-based approach to API management means developers can create a controlled environment in the sandbox for API mock and functional testing. If monetizing APIs is your goal, a platform approach to API design helps you build secure and resilient APIs that other developers will want to adopt as they are part of an ecosystem they can trust. Likewise, if you’re developing APIs for a company, sandbox play will help eradicate dreaded error messages detrimental to the user’s experience.

The use of low‑code techniques has already been identified by 42% of business users as critical to creating better-connected employee experiences. Your team won’t necessarily need specialization for a high-impact API program. What’s more important is the harmonization between operations teams, analysts, and developers – everybody needs access to the same mechanism or platform.

At APIwiz, our low-code platform abstracts out complexity, so developers and businesses in the API economy are equipped with one view of a cross-organizational strategy for efficient API management.

The Growing Popularity of Microservices

As enterprises look to become more agile and move towards DevOps and continuous testing, microservices architecture has become a popular trend. Developers are well aware of this method of developing software systems that focus on building single-function modules or an application as a suite of small services, each independently deployable.

As Martin Fowler pointed out, Netflix, eBay, Amazon, Twitter, PayPal, and other tech giants have all evolved from the challenges of traditional monolithic systems to a microservices, modular architecture. Unlike a traditional monolithic development approach – where different teams each have a specific focus – microservice architecture utilizes cross-functional teams.

But with microservices, challenges can arise due to increased operational complexity. The pace of this new work environment is quicker and, compared to the traditional monolithic complete lifecycle, the distributed system of services can be difficult to manage.

At APIwiz, we are passionate about streamlining enterprise-grade API lifecycle management. Businesses and developers must combine microservices and cloud-native principles for a firm foundation and orchestration over one platform.

Polyglot applications: from Javascript API client to Python API call

Developers can use almost any modern programming language (Python, Javascript, etc) for their own API coding and to build their own applications. For example, Apple publicly shares a number of APIs powered by iOS, its operating system for iPhones and iPads, for app developers to use.

By 2022, 90% of new digital services will be built as composite applications using both internal and public API-delivered services. The API estates of the future are also not just deployed on-premise but on cloud environments (whether public, AWS, Azure, or others).

This is where API sprawl kicks in. As we look at lifecycle management, enterprises are currently using homegrown technologies or running gateway providers – it has been polyglot and decentralized for quite some time.

Every enterprise has the choice to use varied APIs powered by different languages and separate technologies. And at APIwiz, we believe that API lifecycle best practices should not depend on which provider or platform you choose.

However, if developers or businesses want to run a high scale API program, it is time to leverage a decoupled control plane that is not just dependent on Gateway or Service Mesh providers to cut costs, complexity, and delays. A platform approach, instead of project-based, is always the best way forward to embrace the rapidly expanding and changing API landscape.

For more information to be ahead of the trends, check out our blog!

To see how APIwiz helps enterprises remain competitive today, and prepares you for future success in the API economy, simply book your demo.

Written By

Darshan Shivashankar Founder, CTO

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