How APIs Drive Business Strategies

A growing number of organizations are taking advantage of application programming interfaces (APIs)—defined as sets of routines, protocols and tools for building software apps—to improve customer experiences while lowering IT costs, according to a recent survey from CA Technologies. The resulting report, "APIs and the Digital Enterprise: From Operational Efficiency to Digital Disruption," indicates that APIs are becoming essential for both mobile and Web-based app development. IT teams that excel at API implementation are able to define the value of APIs in business terms, while responding to security, management, monitoring and API lifecycle demands. However, most survey respondents indicate that they face challenges in obtaining funding and recruiting a critical mass of developers into an API program. Once these obstacles are overcome, tech leaders will be in a better position to effectively address their company's business goals and changing digital requirements. "In the early days of IT, [APIs] were primarily used to give programmers convenient access to libraries of prebuilt functions," according to the report. "As systems became more distributed, APIs found their place in more general application and data integration. They allowed remote capabilities and resources to be accessed easily across a network. … They also encouraged a more flexible and robust component-based approach to software development. Fast-forward to today's highly connected world of Web services, mobile apps, the Internet of things and open data, and the smart use of APIs—built and managed using up-to-date techniques—has become a critical enabler of digital transformation." More than 1,440 senior IT and business executives took part in the research, which was conducted by Freeform Dynamics.