Why is API (management) complexity so complex?
In the UK, the weather has ‘turned’ (as they say) and the end-of-year holidays period is already showing itself i.e. the shopping channel is flogging sparkly Christmas lights and the mince pies are in the shops.
It won’t be long before we start talking about key themes for 2022.
Just to table one certainly now during this autumn (fall, if you must) season… we know we’re going to hear a whole lot more about API management.
Self-styled API management specialist Axway has suggested that amid growing IT complexity, enterprises around the world now rely on (up to) three different API management vendors at a time.
The suggestion is that that number will likely be closer to four in the next two years.
Axway CTIO Vince Padua clearly wants to sell us his Amplify API management platform product, that’s his job.
Why is API complexity so complex?
For Padua, the API management spectrum encompasses a need to control, corral and coalesce API activity, calls, robustness, security etc. across hybrid clouds and different third-party solutions.
“API complexity arises for reasons that range from meeting different security needs, to [inconsistencies and integration issues associated with] moving to the cloud and onward to the difficulties in scaling innovation, lack of centralised visibility of APIs and more,” said Padua and team, in a press statement.
Axway suggests that as of now, it can cost somewhere around $30k on average to build an API, taking more than half of enterprises weeks or months to do so.
“From our experience, the future will be about managing complexity, rather than trying to minimise it. Leading companies can onboard a new partner or build an API in a day, by establishing a solid API management program where reuse, centralized governance, and visibility are key,” concluded Padua.
Axway has offered a Vanson Bourne report on rising API complexity here.