An Application Programming Interface (API) can be thought of as an interface through which two software interact with each other. It consists of a set of programming instructions and standards through which a web application can be accessed. The API is a software-to-software interface quite different from a user interface. Through a user interface, a human interacts with a computer; through an API, applications interact with each other. For example, when you book a railway ticket online, the payment of money and the allotment of seat happen due to this kind of interaction between two different applications without any kind of human intervention.

API management allows an organization to make efficient use of the APIs. They constitute standards and documents that help organize the APIs in a secure and scalable environment.

Mobility and Cloud Computing have transformed the technological world drastically. One of their reforms relating to the APIs has been the revealing of the data through APIs to the developer community.

Taking a look at how businesses are transforming to accommodate the Application Programming Interface management and the tools and platform affecting these changes, we have the following points to ponder upon:

Mobility until Eternity

The new trend of doing everything on a mobile phone that was earlier done on desktops and through other mediums has paved way for the development of more and more APIs across platforms. ‘The world is getting smaller and smaller day by day’ is very much appropriate when it comes to using smartphones for all our basic as well as complicated needs. Timely access and access across every device seem to be the need of the hour and enterprises cannot ignore this little fact that has been imminent since long. This calls for API platform and their management as a substantial aspect for business houses.

The Future is in the Clouds

Similar to the great usage of mobile phones, the use of cloud services has also intruded into the sphere of our existence. From Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms to our social interactions across different platforms, cloud computing has become an indispensable technology for enterprises to accommodate their operations to some extent or the other. The development of APIs across various cloud computing platforms and across platforms that are proprietary in nature has led to API management being at the helm of affairs.

Data, Data Everywhere

The mammoth growth of Data across enterprises will continue with time. Smart enterprises will exploit the situation by leveraging the data into useful information for making business decisions, carry out forecasts, and attract customers by studying their past and future behavior patterns. Together with this strategy to attract new customers and retain the current ones, enterprises will also find methods to reduce cost and increase revenue.

So we are convinced that API management is the call of the hour for enterprises. Creating and maintaining an API is not enough until data integration, performance, and security are provided at the same time. Along with that continuous analysis is required that can provide us the measures based upon which new apps that are appropriate and useful can be created.

We can choose one from a number of API management platforms. But there are a number of questions to be answered before making the choice. Will the platform be simple and easy to use? Will the User Interface (UI) of the API portal be helpful in design and implementation? How will be the documentation carried out? What and how the sandbox environment help developers test before implementing? Getting into the core of our requirement for the API is important to realize the extent of our need. Quality and quantity must also play a part in our choice. Keeping in mind all the pros and cons of the platform as well as the magnitude of our requirement, the right choice of the API can be carried out so that enterprises can couple maximum benefit in a competitive market of today.