APIs: A Strategy Guide
Dan Woods, Daniel Jacobson, Greg Brail
Language: English
Pages: 131
ISBN: 2:00163556
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Programmers used to be the only people excited about APIs, but now a growing number of companies see them as a hot new product channel. This concise guide describes the tremendous business potential of APIs, and demonstrates how you can use them to provide valuable services to clients, partners, or the public via the Internet. You’ll learn all the steps necessary for building a cohesive API business strategy from experts in the trenches.
Facebook and Twitter APIs continue to be extremely successful, and many other companies find that API demand greatly exceeds website traffic. This book offers executives, business development teams, and other key players a complete roadmap for creating a viable API product.
• Learn about the rise of APIs and why your business might need one
• Understand the roles of asset owners, providers, and developers in the API value chain
• Build strategies for designing, implementing, and marketing your product
• Devise an effective process for security and user management
• Address legal issues, such as rights management and terms of use
• Manage traffic and user experience with a reliable operating model
• Determine the metrics you need to measure your API’s success
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using lightweight APIs as a way to let employees more quickly build applications for private or partner use. They are also using the same APIs to drive their core businesses. Jason Sirota, Director of Application Architecture at XO Group Inc., formerly known as The Knot Inc., says that their API is mostly designed to benefit internal development. “Specifically, the API has two objectives—to reduce internal coupling across three to four lines of business and create well defined interface points
keys are hard-coded into the source code of mobile apps and may be sent in clear text over the network with no encryption. That’s fine when they’re used for auditing and analytics, but since the compromise of one API key could affect millions of devices, they’re not adequate for authentication when sensitive data is involved. An alternative is username/password authentication, which is the authentication scheme supported by many secure websites. It’s easiest to use HTTP Basic authentication,
expectations with developers on usage terms and benefits Content Supporting materials that get developers started and inspire great ideas Awareness Evangelizing your API to the target audience Experience The end-to-end customer experience of learning and using the API Community Resources for support and collaboration Product (or First You Need a Great API!) First and foremost, you must have a solid API. Developers have many options, and having a cool API is critical to
the developer portal Although the developer portal is a key component of an API strategy, don’t underestimate the value of getting your content on other sites where developers hang out. Don’t consider the portal a substitute for interaction with developers, both online and in person. Selecting the wrong community manager Problems include not having a full time community manager or having someone who is not technical or is an odd fit. Your community manager should be both technical
world and the other in the business world. Let the technology serve and influence the business direction, not dominate it. Listening to your developers (who are often technical by nature) will shape the program in ways you hadn’t considered. But that should only happen within the framework of the overarching strategy. An API is a tactic for implementing a business strategy, a tool for creating business value. Like any tactic, APIs have their own logic, their own personality. Now that you