API Strategy

An application programming interface (API) is:

"an interface that provides programmatic access to service functionality and data within an application or a database. It can be used as a building block for the development of new interactions with humans, other applications or smart devices" -- Gartner

Netflix is a good example to demonstrate the power of APIs. Netflix created a set of APIs as "API Products" and published them for the public. Smart TV vendors embedded these APIs in their products as "consumers" enabling their smart TV sets with built-in Netflix features. This strategy is one of the reason why Netflix is a household name and an enormous success story.

Such use cases and resulting demand for APIs are rapidly growing and driving more and more organizations to develop their overarching Digital Strategy with API strategy as its cornerstone.

API Use cases:

Banking

Guidelines

1. Consider APIs as digital products and engage all stakeholders including product owners, API developers, API consumers and business stakeholders

2. Use Enterprise API gateway (a central interface for all external communications) to protect API endpoint (the place that APIs send requests and where the resource lives)

3. Use Microgateways as central control and governance for API traffic flowing within the organization. It is proxy which sits close to the microservice.

4. Augment API Security with capabilities such as:

   a. Web Application Firewall (WAF),

   b. anti DDoS (distributed denial of service) protection,

   c. Bot mitigation,

   d. Content Delivery Network (CDN)

   e. Application Delivery Controllers (ADC)