API Manager – Promoting Service Reuse for Maximizing SOA Success

The application programming interface (API), though being an old concept, is undergoing

transformation driven by mobile and cloud requirements and more and more organizations

has recognized these opportunities and opening their information assets to external

developers. Opening APIs to the outside developers enables many technology start-ups to

become platforms. It helps the developer communities grow which are tied to their core data

or application resources. This translates into new reach, revenue, and end-user retention.

The use of APIs for sharing information and functionality with outside developers is not

limited to technology startups. More and more enterprises are moving with this

transformation by integrating their existing consumer endpoints in their internal ecosystem

to build a seamless connection between mobile, cloud, and their legacy software. However,

opening up the business assets and integrating existing disparate modules need to be done

with great caution. There is a good deal on line while dealing with APIs, including reputation,

regulation, and simultaneous needs of customers, partners, employees and stakeholders.

The Enterprise API Management Challenge

One such scenario that happened at Azilen and moved us to write this blog was the challenge

of integrating existing web services under a single umbrella while also maintaining their

existing consumption intact. Being in the hospitality business for more than half a decade

Azilen has provided numerous software solutions that cater to the aspects of hospitality

business. Many of these disparate solutions have web services that expose the business logic

to the mobile apps.

The following were the critical requirements of the system:1.Communicating with the POS for synchronizing the menu, and creating & tracking

orders.

2.Communicating with the electronic menu pad which is used by the guests to send their

orders.

3.Inter-waiter communication channel with live notifications.

While the first specification required creating a new JSON web service to expose the POS’s

functionality, fulfilling the other two specifications required communicating to APIs already

published in other projects. Thus, we had to find a way to collaborate these three APIs as well

as keep the complete system unified for easy management and maintenance.

The API Management SolutionWhen looking for an API management solution, our technical architect team came across

the WSO2 API Managerwhich is a middleware platform for designing and publishing APIs

helping the developers to make the APIs scalable and route traffic. With the WSO2 API

Manager we can unite all the disparate APIs, which work independently as well as can work

in a collaborative environment together under a single umbrella.

The advantages that such API manager platform provides the developers are:•API Security - Your APIs are not directly exposed to the consumers as there is a

management layer between the consumers and the API. The consumers are

authenticated in the API manager and only then provided access to the underlying

APIs.

•API Lifecycle Management – Every API that is capped under the API manager can

and will work independent of the other APIs. And hence the API lifecycle can be

easily managed and maintained while accommodating multiple versions in the

production simultaneously.

•API Governance - It defines the terms and conditions under which the API is

exposed to one or more consumers. It also articulates SLA for monitoring and

reporting requirements. This gives added flexibility of publishing and promoting the

APIs to the consumers as the consumers can mix and match the APIs to be used in

accordance to their requirements.

•Building Developer Community - As seen in the above case study of collaborating

APIs from different projects, it can be safely said that API manager promotes building

developer communities that work together in publishing their APIs and making

functionality reuse an ease.

•API Monetization - Related to the idea of developer enablement is the concept of

making money by exposing business functionality over an SOA. With the API

manager the enterprises can either get their internal development team setups

judiciously, or offer pay-per-use options for external developer fraternities to make

use of their business assets.

Conclusions

As no two enterprises have exactly the same needs or environment, there will never be a

one-stop-shop kind of SOA that fits in all business requirements. Therefore, with an API

manager, you can leverage the power of flexibility to produce an SOA that is tailored for your

enterprise needs with much fun and ease. Operationally too, API Management solution is

secure, manageable, and reliable for promoting service reuse and maximizing the SOA

success in any enterprise.