API traffic dominates the web in 2022, and technology analysts expect API investments to increase by 37% this year alone. This is in response to the data explosion that started as technology integrated itself deeper into our lives, and most especially into the business world—a phenomenon that was only further catalyzed by the pandemic.
For those who don’t know, an application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. With the capacity to connect channels, and platforms—APIs have pretty much become a prerequisite for operating in the digital era of 2022.
This has led to increasingly complex API products and estates in 2022, making appropriate API management key to business advancement in the digital world. Honing in on your company’s internal framework means honing in on the ins and outs of getting your data to work smarter, not harder.
Once a business understands the inner workings of the API that runs its processes and operations, it can better leverage it to accelerate business. Let’s take a look at the ways APIs are allowing businesses to maintain flexibility, agility, and cohesiveness even with the higher volume of traffic and needed digital integrations, and how one company is trailblazing these efforts through their proprietary API offerings.
Centralized control
As APIs evolve from pure technical artifacts to products, the role of API management is also evolving. In order to handle the various connections and dependencies between different APIs and reduce API sprawl, centralized command over operations should be considered.
Every enterprise has the choice to use varied APIs powered by different languages and individual technologies—leading many enterprises’ data footprints to become increasingly hybrid. In turn, API visibility and monitoring are growing in complexity. Even if enterprises use a microservices approach for functionality, a single, unified view of applications across multiple environments will still be needed.
Standardizing the definition of the API lifecycle helps to streamline the interoperation of APIs throughout their different modalities and various lifecycle phases. This ultimately empowers organizations to take the reins on their API management and in turn leads to better quality APIs overall.
Company APIwiz is helping to lead this effort through their centralized developer ecosystem that deals with all parts of the API lifecycle—including designing, building, testing, and monitoring. Their low-code platform mitigates complexity, so developers and businesses in the API network are equipped with one view of a cross-organizational strategy for efficient API management.
This helps businesses not depend on individual API providers or platforms, but rather leverage a centralized control point that supports functionality no matter the myriad of digital integrations or increased traffic.
Consumer-focused tooling
As new digital business initiatives are folded into API management efforts, companies need to start widening their scope from just the technical management of APIs to include the product-oriented mindset of API delivery as well.
The business world of 2022 is extremely consumer-focused, and APIs should follow suit. API management tooling offers API providers the ability to provide a unified catalog of a business’ API estate, allowing for the delivery of consistent products.
This helps developers achieve seamless and frictionless API design to support marketing, rollout, and adoption of products. With the capacity to tool services as needed and specialize offerings, more digital integrations can be made on behalf of the consumer.
Planning and developing an API system that works for the individual company comes from diligent trial and error testing. Once the parameters of what works and what doesn’t have been established, the proper API framework can be established.
Through a design-first approach and rigorous API testing at all stages of API planning, company Apiwiz helps to catalyze this development. By freeing up developers from obligations on the backend when it comes to updates and status changes, the company works to give them more time to iterate and improve the front, or consumer-facing, end.
This ensures a reliable and intuitive experience for developers and by proxy the consumers, they work for.
The future of APIs in business
More than just mediators between a multitude of different applications, APIs are considered the core of what facilitates business in our hyper-connected world because they allow for a higher volume of traffic and digital integrations.
With more and more data pouring into daily business operations, the more important API-led connectivity becomes—making API management a critical factor to the success of many businesses in 2022.
For companies to manage the value creation of automated data-driven services, using a company such as APIwiz will be vital for streamlining the process of developing, building, and running APIs.
Disclosure: This article mentions a client of an Espacio portfolio company.
